by David Anderson
On the odyssey of life we need some way of knowing where we are, and whether we’re headed the right direction. In English, to be “oriented” is to know where east is. Historically, church buildings are situated so that the altar is on the east wall, and almost always a window opens to receive the […]
by David Anderson 2 Comments Filed Under: Character, Community, Daily Practice, Faithfulness, Prayer/Meditation, Seeing, Silence, Vocation/ Calling
In “the Arrival,” a 1996 Sci-Fi, Charlie Sheen stars as a radio astronomer who scans the heavens for signs of extra-terrestrial intelligence. His radio telescope is trained on the stars, hoping to pick up a narrow band of radiation that would belie the communication of an advanced civilization beyond our solar system. A poster on […]
by David Anderson 2 Comments Filed Under: Faith/Trust, Grace, Now/ the Present, Prayer/Meditation, Seeing, Waiting
I am at Pendle Hill, a Quaker retreat center outside Philadelphia. Like all retreat centers it is a refuge of quiet, a place of reflection, a deliberate exit from the fast lane of contemporary life. The buildings are Pennsylvania fieldstone, circa 1930, small, spare, rather cold (Quakers waste nothing, especially fuel oil), but with roaring […]
by David Anderson 2 Comments Filed Under: Faith/Trust, Letting Go, Prayer/Meditation, Reality--trusting it
Ninety in ninety. That’s what my friend—I’ll call him Gary—had just accomplished a week earlier. Ninety AA meetings in ninety days. We sat in a coffee shop last night and I heard his story. There are a thousand ways to be a drunk, but one outcome. You can’t stop drinking even though it’s killing you […]
by David Anderson 12 Comments Filed Under: Change, Daily Practice, Forgiveness, Healing, Prayer/Meditation, Surrender
Ted Ryan, a friend of mine, told me about an experience that goes under the category of “the things a child can imagine.” He was giving his four year-old son breakfast before he went off to work, but the boy was just sitting there. He wasn’t touching his cereal. So Ted says to his son, […]
by David Anderson 2 Comments Filed Under: Adult Spirituality, Change, Character, Choice, Daily Practice, Faithfulness, Prayer/Meditation, Uncategorized
“God is an underground river,” Meister Eckhart said, “that no one can dam up or stop.” I love that image of God because it completely flips the dominant image of God “up there.” When we first imagine a deity, God is always “up,” always distant, the Sky God of nearly every ancient religion. Until, gradually, […]
by David Anderson 2 Comments Filed Under: Abundance, Daily Practice, Prayer/Meditation
I sat in a group a few weeks ago—it was a group of clergy, and someone whose ministry I really respect began to speak of the challenges to his spiritual life. Don said, “Parish life can take it out of me. I get busy, then I get overwhelmed—and my spiritual life suffers. I ‘don’t have […]
by David Anderson Leave a Comment Filed Under: Change, Daily Practice, Faithfulness, Prayer/Meditation
“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