by David Anderson
“All problems are either clouds or clocks,” said the eminent philosopher Carl Popper. There are two different kinds of systems, he meant. To understand a clock you can take it apart, examine its individual pieces, understand it or fix it. A cloud is different. You can only observe it as a dynamic, shifting, morphing whole. […]
by David Anderson 4 Comments Filed Under: Daily Practice, Letting Go, Now/ the Present, Prayer/Meditation, Reality--trusting it, Seeing, Silence
This is the weekend to remember our fathers. Fathers struggle. We know this. Mothers hold onto their children, sometimes too closely, sometimes for too long, but once that wet, naked child is placed in their arms they know instinctively what to do. Fathers don’t. We have to learn this stuff. We’re not so comfortable holding […]
by David Anderson 3 Comments Filed Under: Faith/Trust, Faithfulness, Family, Letting Go
I spoke with three people on Sunday whose life-as-usual had dead-ended. For two it was a life-altering illness. For the other it was a lost job. It was a typical Sunday, really—I suppose I stopped and talked to twenty people between three services, a parish picnic and a hospital call. These days, world unsettled as […]
by David Anderson 2 Comments Filed Under: Change, Faith/Trust, Fear, Letting Go, Now/ the Present, Reality--trusting it, Vocation/ Calling
The single challenge of life is change. We don’t like it, yet we know it is the only constant. Every day we get up and . . . things have changed. Nothing is where we left it last night. Not the kids, not the dog, not the roses in the garden. Everything we had just […]
by David Anderson 4 Comments Filed Under: Change, Faith/Trust, Grace, Happiness, Letting Go, Now/ the Present, Reality--trusting it, Surrender
Yesterday was the commemoration of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German pastor who was martyred for his opposition to the Nazis. He considered taking refuge in the United States, where he was teaching, but he returned to Germany to continue his work in the resistance. He was arrested April 5, 1943 and imprisoned in Berlin. Three days […]
by David Anderson 7 Comments Filed Under: Faith in Action, Faithfulness, Grace, Letting Go, Surrender
There is an old Jewish story about the young pupil who asks the respected rabbi a question about that well-known passage in Deuteronomy 6:6. “And these words, which I command you this day, shall be upon your heart.” “Why is it this way?” the pupil asks. “Why are we told to put these words upon […]
by David Anderson 10 Comments Filed Under: Adult Spirituality, Faith/Trust, Family, Letting Go, Love
We all start out with a training-wheels god. It’s always a very much bigger version of mother and father (with all the bane and blessing that entails). It’s a god who looks after you but also looks in on you—so you’d better be good. As we grow older we keep riding the training-wheels god. Our […]
by David Anderson 2 Comments Filed Under: Adult Spirituality, Faith/Trust, Letting Go, Now/ the Present, Reality--trusting it, Seeing
Along with my clergy colleagues, Leslie and Jonathan, I was leading a session last night on fasting, a spiritual practice common to the three monotheistic faiths, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. One man in the group said, “I’ve been worshiping as an Episcopalian for 25 years and this is the first I ever remember anyone talking […]
by David Anderson 3 Comments Filed Under: Daily Practice, Fear, Grace, Letting Go, Surrender