When a Spiritual Teaching Makes Me Stop I recently came across a teaching from Derek Prince that made me stop and think because it touched directly on Black Christians, slavery, and spiritual freedom. Prince argued that Black Americans had been politically emancipated from slavery but had never fully experienced what he called spiritual emancipation. He
Were Black Christians Ever Spiritually Emancipated? Read More »
Twenty Years of Manifestation in Plain Language I have listened to enough conversations about manifestation to understand why the idea attracts so many people. At its simplest, manifestation says that what we repeatedly think about can influence how we approach our lives. Some teachers call it the Law of Attraction, while others connect it to
Manifestation, Faith, and the Work Behind What We Desire Read More »
When Faith Meets Disappointment I was riding around one Sunday, thinking about life, faith, and the people who have been hurt by religious leaders they once trusted. There is a particular kind of pain that comes when somebody disappoints you after you have placed spiritual confidence in them. You may have trusted their words, respected
A Title Does Not Make a Mystic Read More »
What a Tree Can Teach Me The older I get, the more I understand why people have always looked to nature for lessons about living. A tree does not begin its life by reaching only toward the sky. Before it can stand tall, it must send roots deep into the earth beneath it. Those roots
Rooted in the Earth, Still Reaching for the Light Read More »
The Life We Live on Autopilot I have come to understand that much of what I do every day begins somewhere deeper than the conscious mind. I may believe I am making a fresh decision, when in truth an old belief could be making that decision for me. Habits do not always appear out of
When I Finally Looked at the Parts of Myself I Had Been Avoiding Read More »
The Foundation of Character I once heard it said that courage may be the most important of all the virtues because without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue consistently. The older I get, the more sense that makes to me. Anybody can be kind when kindness costs them nothing. Anybody can tell the truth
Courage Is What Holds the Other Virtues Together Read More »
When Life Seems to Line Up There are times in life when something happens so perfectly that I stop and wonder whether it was really just a coincidence. I may be thinking about somebody I have not spoken to in months, and suddenly the telephone rings with their name on the screen. I may be
When Coincidence Starts Feeling Like a Message Read More »
The Question That Made Me Look Deeper I have heard people say that the Bible did not simply appear in history exactly as we know it today. To understand it better, I need to look more closely at how it developed over time. That challenge is worth considering because the Bible is not one book
Who Decided What Became the Bible? Read More »
Wrestling With the Idea That We Are God I have heard people say, “You are God pretending to be human,” and that is the kind of statement that can either open somebody’s mind or shut the whole conversation down. Taken literally, it sounds like somebody is claiming that every human being is the Almighty, with
When I Began to Understand the God Within Read More »
When I Started Thinking Beyond the Blessing I have heard people talk about blessings all my life, especially growing up around folks who believed God had a hand in everything. We thanked God for food, family, jobs, homes, health, opportunities, and another morning to open our eyes. As I got older, though, I began thinking
The Blessing May Open the Door, but Grace Carries You Through Read More »