a good place to begin
Sometimes, when you get to the place where you no longer care, that is the best place to begin!
I noticed this when pastored a church. If I cared too much, I often would try to bend things to my agenda. But when I gave up, that’s when the best things would happen.
Same with this blog. I notice that when I care too much, try to make nakedpastor into something important and useful, it becomes dry, forced and unpleasant. When I give up and just be, that’s when it resonates most with my readers. Most of them anyway.
Maybe it’s time for you to give up. Certainly on some things.
Do you want to invite me to speak? Or do you just need to talk? Just email me to set up a time. My fees are reasonable and adjustable.
Check out my books and my art.
10 questions for when you’re dying
What is the point of pretending?
One of the greatest regrets people have on their deathbed is that they weren’t more honest about their feelings and what they really thought. The dying realize they would have been happier being more truthful, authentic, real and honest with those around them, but, more importantly, with themselves.
Pretend you are on your deathbed. Here are some questions:
- What do you really believe?
- What do you no longer believe?
- What conventions did you comply to but had no conviction for?
- What controls in your life, either self-imposed or imposed by others, could you have lived better without?
- What motions were you going through that were detrimental to your soul, your conscience, your intelligence, and even your health?
- Who’s feelings were you trying to protect by continuing to live a life of deceit?
- What do you wish you’d done differently?
- Who are the few people you wish you had taken with you on your journey?
- Who would you have been better off without?
- Do you realize that rejecting your idea of That-Which-We-Call-God is not rejecting that which the word points to? The word is not the thing!
These are just a few questions you can ask yourself that might enable you to start living a fuller life now.
Why wait until it is too late?
(I remind you of an excellent short post by Bronnie Ware called “Top Five Regrets of the Dying”. Check it out.)
Do you want to invite me to speak? Or do you just need to talk? Just email me to set up a time. My fees are reasonable and adjustable.
Check out my books and my art.
Gay Thursday: new kind of bible theme park
I thought it would be interesting to have a new kind of bible theme park that contained attractions about the nastier parts of the bible. There’s a whole lot more I could have used. Like Lot being raped by his two daughters. (Ya, sure!) Or the stoning of a man who picked up some kindling on the sabbath. Or David hamstringing a herd of horses. I also thought of a ride called “To Hell and Back” where you take a journey through the center of mega-church services.
Maybe you have some ideas.
Do you want to invite me to speak? Or do you just need to talk? Just email me to set up a time. My fees are reasonable and adjustable.
Check out my books and my art.
if you feel like you are losing your faith you are
Even the bible talks about transformation, being born again, and becoming new creations. This means that what we are today is not what we were yesterday. Including the mind and its contents!
Once we have a kernel of belief we truly embrace, all other data that presents itself to us is either integrated with that kernel of belief or rejected. I claim that most of us are involved in the daily tweaking of erroneous thought and naive belief. When we think we are adding to our faith, we are actually only fortifying our fears and illustrating our illusions.
So when people express with terror that they feel like they are losing their faith, I encourage them to continue pressing into that. Be honest with yourself. If something is dying in you, let it die in peace. Let it go. If you are losing the faith you had, then perhaps it is an excellent thing. Let it happen. Let it slide over you and away. Always know that your belief is not the thing.
Because I also consider another great theme of scripture to be metaphorically true: resurrection power. Until something dies, new life will never find a place to be conceived or birthed.
Do you need to talk? Just email me to set up an appointment.
Check out my books and my art.
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graffiti artist on the walls of religion
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