I've only watched a couple episodes of Hoarders and that's all I want to watch. We will keep everything from twist ties to TV sets. The emotional, sentimental and psychological attachment we may develop with our things is shocking! There are memories connected to each...
What do you want?
I was Skyping with another TLS member yesterday and asked her a simple question: "What do you want?" It's a simple question, but one I used to find impossible to answer. Many years ago when I was in one of my times of confusion, a mentor asked me the same question and...
how forgiveness is sometimes easier than easy
I want to tell you a story of what happened to me last night. Lisa and I were invited to a friend's house. She was one of my leaders and we were great friends. But when I left the ministry and the church we had a kind of falling out. We've been working on restoring...
desire means lack
The great French psychologist philosopher Jacques Lacan said that desire is not a relation to an object but a relation to a lack. We don't desire what we have, but what we don't have. The second noble truth of Buddhism is that desire causes suffering. Closely linked...
feelings of hopelessness
As we go through periods of deconstruction or growth we may experience times of hopelessness. Actually, some hopelessness is good. For example, when my fantasies crumble, I can predict that I will occasionally feel hopeless. Letting go of beliefs that previously...
you are your own authority
Last night we met with some friends, a couple who used to be on my leadership team and who had also left the church. When we were in their living room last night, I was flooded with nostalgia. We used to have leadership meetings there. I remember the camaraderie, the...
why reconstruct?
One of the struggles many of us on TLS experience is… okay… now that I've deconstructed, how can I reconstruct? I have an answer for that with a story: Once upon a time there was a beautiful field, and in the center of this field was a spring of fresh water. People...
you don’t have to reject anything
When I began to realize that I was transitioning spiritually… away from former beliefs and towards new ways of thinking… I was frequently overcome with fear. The Baptist, Pentecostal and ultimately evangelical movements I was raised in have an automatic release of...
the emanation and the return
I want to share with you something I've read about a certain device. It serves as an excellent analogy to how we may understand the cosmos, time, history and even religion. I read about this device in the quantum physicist David Bohm's essay, "The Enfolding-Unfolding...
get out of your head and into your body
Here's a spiritual exercise for your Saturday: An idea that was drilled into my head in the church was based on Isaiah 26:3… "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee." In other words, I was taught that I had to be thinking about God all of...
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