Male/Female.  Republican/Democrat.  Smoker/Non-smoker.  Christian/Non-Christian.  Catholic/Protestant.  Calvinist/Arminian. There are so many dualities that we often feel like we have to categorize ourselves into.  I wonder if it’s because choosing between two options is, well, simple.  If you don’t want women to have abortions, well then you must be a Republican.   If you really care about taking care of poor people or the environment, well then you must be a Democrat. The th...

Imagine you were hungry for some pizza, so you do quick Google search for nearby pizza joints.  You discover a new one only a few blocks away from you and it’s called Pete’s Christian Pizza.  And of course the logo is a Christian fish on a pizza. “What a strange name for a pizza place”, you say to yourself. “How can pizza be Christian?” I’m not sure what decision you make at that point.  Me, I probably opt to not go for it.  I figure that if they need to slap Christian...

It may be a nice idea to say that experiencing and encountering Reality is more important than trying to understand it, but how does that actually happen?  How does one encounter God? I feel like I’d like to address this in two ways.  First, I think that Reality is experienced on some level by everybody all of the time.  When that piece of music moves your heart, God is in that somehow.  That feeling of grandeur and transcendent beauty that one gets when one looks up at the night sky, t...

I guess I shall start where I left off. In my journal, on the first day of my pilgrimage/retreat, I wrote “God is something to be experienced not to ‘believe’ in?  God is too big to be believed in or not believed in.” It’s interesting for me to read that journal because it wasn’t very thought through.  It was more of a stream of consciousness sort of thing.  I was just writing whatever came out without editing myself like I normally might. So what did I mean by a silly sound...

So I was talking to somebody the other day, and she asked me why I hadn’t blogged about my pilgrimage that I took a couple of months ago.   I tried to explain why, but half way through, realized that I didn’t really know why.  I guess I didn’t want to exploit or cheapen the experience by immediately just blogging about it..  But, it’s been a little while now, and I think I can share some of the story without feeling like I’m cheapening it to myself.   However, I don’t think it�...