We are never without an opportunity for a new, fresh revelation of those things that we most need to hear. Whether it is revealed in a dream, a sacred text, or a common daily occurrence, it’s important to be able to listen to what is waiting to be revealed.
Here we will explore dreams, sacred texts and reflections on daily life in order to plumb the depths of our own experiences.
Many of my sacred texts are from Christian traditions, but as an interfaith practitioner, I love to encounter and engage with texts from a broad spectrum of belief systems. If you’d like to see a particular text here, be sure to submit one by using the contact form.
Do you dream in vivid color or black and white? Do your dreams speak to you?
What texts are meaningful to you? Do you hold any texts as sacred?
How do you believe that God speaks to you?
The Return of Babel – a reflection on Genesis 11 for our Times
In my last post, I talked about the flood. The painful, messy, and beautiful termination of humanity by Mother God. But the story does not end there. After Noah lands the Ark, humanity begins again. And once they begin again, they begin to build things. Sacred monuments, towers of gathering, big walls. They begin to erect the Tower of Babel. In this text, we see God scatter people in order for them to fulfill the prophetic word that was spoken over them – to multiply, be fruitful, to steward and fill the earth. In our times, we are...
read moreThe Loss of a Mothering God: Exploring Noah
Most of our depictions of God are of the old, white guy with a beard in the sky, prepared for judgment. If we’re lucky, we’ve rediscovered the vibrant, multi-faceted and very non-white God who Fathers us with love and power and compassion. But if we’re honest, the concept of a Mother God disrupts us and makes us desperately uncomfortable. It’s no surprise that when The Shack revealed God as an older, loving black Mother that so many of us rooted in traditional Western Christianity lost our ever-loving minds. But some...
read moreFrom Easter, 2016
Today is Easter. It feels a bit arbitrarily dated this year, and I almost feel as if I didn’t catch up. I’ve been so caught up in Jewish rhythms this year that my own liturgical rhythms have been a bit more muted. I’m still wrapped up in Purim and deliverance and courage and honor – and so my reflection on Resurrection feels so different this year. We went to church, and it was so uplifting and fun. My “mom” up here in Canada is a pastor of a dynamic little congregation, and like many other evenings with...
read moreExpectation and God’s Goodness
It’s the season of Advent. A season of expectation and waiting. In the ancient text about Jesus written by Luke, we have two songs of expectation. One from a young woman, and another from an old man, both glorifying God for His goodness, His restoration, His power. But imagine if you will, the voices of these two people. Mary – a young Jewish woman, found pregnant before marriage. Formerly known for her faithfulness and devotion to the Lord, now she is seen as ruined, tainted. Joseph, her betrothed, most likely was encouraged to...
read moreSB1062 Mini Soapbox
<begin soapbox and mild theological reflection – please feel free to ignore> I normally try to remain silent on most political issues, but having now read SB1062 from AZ, I’m actually more concerned about the bill and its ramifications. The wording of it is far too vague, leaving numerous openings for the state to *have* to come in to define religious practice. I really don’t want the state to define those practices. Knowing, also, that the concern had to do with bakers in CO & OR (and a photographer in NM) being...
read moreWhy today is actually a Good Day
The last post I wrote had to do with dust and ashes. Death. Sadness. Grief. I sat with friends and family who had to say goodbye. And in that saying goodbye, there were so many different kinds of grief. There was the grief of death – that someone had died. But the lingering grief is the one that most people don’t talk about. It’s the grief that comes in a million little deaths. The death of dreams. I’ve had to watch people I love desperately have to figure out a whole new way to live. The death of the “first...
read moreDust and Ashes
I’ve spent most of my life trying to make sense of things. Thinking about things, pondering, and getting everything together in my head. But sometimes things don’t make sense. Sometimes… Things crash into you like a comet from the sky and all you can feel is pulverized. Helpless. Hopeless. What does life look like now? When the fire and the smoke and the dust and ashes clear, what does life look like now? And just because they’re clearing for me on the outskirts, what about the people at ground zero? Covered in dust and ashes, groaning under...
read more10 Steps to a Better Political Season
Dear friends, This letter is primarily addressed to those of my friends who consider themselves biblical Jesus-followers. So if that’s not you, feel free to read or pass this along, but I’m pretty aware that the laws of proper societal etiquette don’t hold you to these statements. That being said, I think that there are some principles in here that apply across the board – “don’t be a jerk” being one of them. But, however, if you do consider yourselves in that category, can I ask you to get to the end before commenting or ranting or otherwise...
read moreHiding Your Heart
I have dreams about packing. Unpacking. Repacking. Suitcases, boxes, again and again and again. I take things out, I repack them. I make things fit better. I simplify, I clean, I pack, I sort. Over and over and over again. And I’ve been having these dreams for the past two years. For one of those years, I was settled in a place that I thought would be home for years. I never thought I’d have to leave. And then things began to change. We began to get a sense that God was calling us away from the ‘home’ that we knew....
read moreDoing It Afraid 6: Repentance
“Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results.” ― Albert Einstein This blog is actually more of a reflection on this blog by Julien Smith called “The Complete Guide to Snapping the @#$% Out of It” Most of us, when we think of repentance have some mental image which involves groveling, crying out, confessing horrific deeds. And the New Year is normally the world-side season of this kind of repentance. We talk about all our bad habits, our not-so-great habits, and the habits that we wish we...
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The Whispered Life by Katherine Sturm is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.