Minding Positivity

Friday, November 28, 2025

Richard Rohr explores how our brains are wired to hold onto negativity, and how contemplative practice helps us choose positivity instead: 

Brain studies have shown that we may be hardwired to focus on problems at the expense of a positive vision. The human brain wraps around fear and problems like Velcro. We dwell on bad experiences long after the fact and spend vast amounts of energy anticipating what might go wrong in the future. Conversely, positivity and gratitude and simple happiness slide away like cheese on hot Teflon. Studies like the ones done by the neuropsychologist Rick Hanson show that we must consciously hold on to a positive thought or feeling for a minimum of fifteen seconds before it leaves any imprint in the neurons. The whole dynamic, in fact, is called the Velcro/Teflon model of the mind. [1] We are more attracted to the problem than to the solution, you might say. 

Please don’t simply take me at my word. Watch your own brain and emotions. You will quickly see there is a toxic attraction to the “negative,” whether it’s a situation at work, a bit of incriminating gossip you overheard, or a sad development in the life of a friend. True freedom from this tendency is exceedingly rare, since we are ruled by automatic responses most of the time. The only way, then, to increase authentic spirituality is to deliberately practice actually enjoying a positive response and a grateful heart. And the benefits are very real. By following through on conscious choices, we can rewire our responses toward love, trust, and patience. Neuroscience calls this neuroplasticity. This is how we increase our bandwidth of freedom, and it is surely the heartbeat of any authentic spirituality.  

Most of us know that we can’t afford to walk around fearing, hating, dismissing, and denying all possible threats and all otherness. But few of us were given practical teaching in how to avoid this. It’s interesting that Jesus emphasized the absolute centrality of inner motivation and intention more than outer behavior, spending almost half of the Sermon on the Mount on this subject (see Matthew 5:20–6:18). We must—yes, must—make a daily and even hourly choice to focus on the good, the true, and the beautiful. A wonderful description of this act of the will is found in Philippians 4:4–9, where Paul writes, “Rejoice in the Lord always” [italics added]. If you’re tempted to write this off as idyllic “positive thinking,” remember that Paul wrote this letter while literally in chains (1:12–13). How did he pull this off? You might call it “mind control.” Many of us just call it “contemplation.”  

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John Chaffee 5 On Friday

1.

“People forget facts, but they remember stories.”

– Joseph Campbell, American Mythologist

This may be why the scientific era is not that inspiring.  Sure, the impetus to explore and discover is, in its own way, inspiring, but there is something about narrative that is better at shaping and informing our moral compass than scientific facts.

If you have ever seen the movie Interstellar, you know it has impressive science displayed in a cinematic fashion.  However, the emotional tone of that movie and its emphasis on family, loneliness, grief, sacrifice, and hope are what drive the story and make the protagonist the “hero.”

2.

“The love of God is a reckless, raging fury.”

– Brennan Manning, Former Franciscan

This week, I began journaling through the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola.  During one of the journaling sessions, something triggered my memory of how Brennan Manning (inspired by GK Chesterton) would write and talk about the “furious love of God.”  In turn, Rich Mullins wrote a short song on the same topic.

In fact, here is the Rich Mullins song, in a YouTube format!

3.

“Holiness is goodness on fire.”

– Walter Rauschenbusch, Baptist Minister

I never heard of Walter Rauschenbusch before two weeks ago.  He was a Baptist minister in Rochester, NY, and his work helped to inform/inspire Howard Thurman, Martin Luther King Jr., and many others.  He was pretty active in social activism, which was impressive at the end of the 19th century.

One of the impressive markers of Raushenbusch’s theology was his connection between the private sins we commit and the social or collective sins that are often overlooked.  For him, it is a betrayal of the ethics of Christianity and of Christ to preach about the personal virtues of individuals without calling the larger society to more and more virtues as well.

If you ask me, one of the marks of a prophet is not that they decry the individual sins of people, but can see through the rationalizations and defense mechanisms and name for the rest of us the social sins toward which we give a blind eye.

4.

“God expects more failure from us than we do.”

– Unknown

Dang.

Let’s all sit back and dwell on that, huh?

5.

“Truly, He taught us to love one another;
His law is love, and His gospel is peace.
Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother,
and in His name all oppression shall cease.“

– Verse 3 of O Holy Night

As I mentioned above, O Holy Night is one of my favorite hymns of all time.  One thing that impresses me is how it connects the Incarnation with the liberation of slaves.  I am sure many people know this third verse, but I also believe many perhaps sing it without realizing that, when this hymn was written, it was a protest song that included this verse.

Could you take a moment and reread the verse?

It was written in 1843.

The 13th Amendment, which ended slavery, was passed in Congress in 1865.

That means this hymn was sung for 22 years while slavery was still “legal” in America.

This is quite inspiring.  It also leads me to wonder what other social ills we are committing today that fly in the face of the Incarnation…

A Practice of Thanksgiving

Thursday, November 27, 2025

Thanksgiving Day (U.S.) 

Gratitude is strongest, clearest, most robust, and radical when things are really hard. 
—Diana Butler Bass, Grateful

During a time of crisis, historian and author Diana Butler Bass shares an experience of committing to a practice of gratitude:  

I did the only thing I could think of doing—simply saying “thanks” as I went through the day. I woke up with a brief prayer: “Thank you that I am alive.” I got coffee and breakfast: “Thank you for this food, this day.” I looked out the window: “Thank you for sunshine.” I went into my office: “Thank you for words, for work.”…  

Even when it comes to thankfulness, sometimes you have to take what you can get. I took nothing for granted…. Over the weeks, with my hapless prayers, I discovered something quite unexpected: gratitude, like interest, compounds. This simple form of giving thanks made me pay attention and start looking for particular reasons to be grateful. There would always be grounds for ingratitude. Always. Seeking out the small things for which I could give thanks, however, changed my field of spiritual and emotional vision. I learned not to focus on what was lacking….  

Gratitude is not a form of passive acceptance or complicity. Rather, it is the capacity to stare doubt, loss, chaos, and despair right in the eye and say, “I am still here.”  

Butler Bass describes how a practice of gratitude empowers and enlivens us: 

Gratitude is defiance of sorts, the defiance of kindness in the face of anger, of connection in the face of division, and of hope in the face of fear. Gratefulness does not acquiesce to evil—it resists evil … by tunneling under its foundations of anger, resentment, and greed. Thus, gratitude strengthens our character and moral resolve, giving each of us the possibility of living peaceably and justly. It untwists knotted hearts, waking us to a new sense of who we are as individuals and in community. Being thankful is the very essence of what it means to be alive, and to know that life abundantly.  

Gratitude is not a psychological or political panacea, like a secular prosperity gospel, one that denies pain or overlooks injustice, because being grateful does not “fix” anything. Pain, suffering, and injustice—these things are all real. They do not go away. Gratitude, however, invalidates the false narrative that these things are the sum total of human existence, that despair is the last word. Gratitude gives us a new story. It opens our eyes to see that every life is, in unique and dignified ways, graced: the lives of the poor, the castoffs, the sick, the jailed, the exiles, the abused, the forgotten as well as those in more comfortable physical circumstances. Your life. My life. We all share in the ultimate gift—life itself. Together. Right now….  

Gratitude calls us to sit together, to imagine the world as a table of hospitality. To feed one another. To feast, to dance in the streets. To know and celebrate abundance. 

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Diana Butler Bass……

Give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thessalonians 5:18 NIV).

Friend to Friend

Thanksgiving is here and so I’ve been thinking about gratitude a lot lately. What is it? When should we show it? What does God say about it?

Paul wrote the Thessalonians, “Give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thessalonians 5:18). Most read that verse and think it rather nice. So we slap a sloppy coat of thanksgiving on life and go about our day. In reality, most of us are thankful for very little.

Notice the Bible doesn’t command us to feel thankful in all circumstances. Instead it commands us to “give thanks in all circumstances.” When I begin to praise God in a difficult situation, even if I don’t feel like it, many times the scales fall from my eyes and I begin to see glimpses of His glory sprinkled on the black backdrop of the situation like diamonds on black velvet.

Sometimes I don’t see glory in tragedy, but I still can praise God because I know He is there.

Gratitude changes the lens through which we see the circumstances in our little slice of time. Thanksgiving changes our perspective despite broken dreams, broken relationships, tumultuous circumstances, and unfulfilled longings.

As you praise God for who He is and thank Him for what He’s done, your perspective of Him grows larger and your problems grow smaller. As a result, you will experience a deeper sense of intimacy with God as the emotional gap between what you know to be true and how you feel at the moment closes.

Theologian Christine D. Pohl describes how gratitude impacts our relationships with others: 

When our lives are shaped by gratitude, we’re more likely to notice the goodness and beauty in everyday things. We are content; we feel blessed and are eager to confer blessing. We are able to delight in the very existence of another human being. In a grateful community, individuals and their contributions are acknowledged and honored, and there is regular testimony to God’s faithfulness, through which the community experiences the joys of its members. Expressions of gratitude help make the community alive to the Word, the Spirit, and God’s work.   

Such a community is “a beautiful land” whose culture is grace and whose inhabitants see life as a gift. In this land, we often find abundant forgiveness and frequent celebrations. While we might assume that individuals and communities grow toward holiness and goodness primarily through the hard work of discipline, correction, and challenge, we tend to underestimate the importance of grace. The emphasis on loving God and loving neighbor … is most fruitful as it is rooted in a deep understanding of God’s prior love for us.   

Pohl shares how a small Christian inter-racial community in Mississippi was able to find grace and gratitude for one another in the midst of conflict:  

During a time of crisis in their community, a friend from the outside explained to them, “The way you grow into God’s love isn’t by making demands of each other…. You do it by giving each other grace.” Grace expressed as love “when it didn’t seem fair, or reasonable,” and “when others were being complete jerks.”   

Their wise advisor continued,   

The truth is, we can’t stand the idea of not fixing each other. But insofar as we can fix people at all, we can do it only by forgiving them, and giving them grace, and leaving them to our loving Father. Grace assumes sin. When we ask you to accept each other, we aren’t asking you to ignore hurts between you. People of grace speak the truth. But in an atmosphere of grace, truth seems less offensive and more important…. 

[A church leader] describes the community’s delight when it was introduced to the recipe for a “new culture of grace.” The ingredients for life in community were surprisingly simple: “It is enough to get the love of God into your bones and to live as if you are forgiven. It is enough to care for each other, to forgive each other, and to wash the dishes.”  

When we more fully understand the grace we’ve received, we are able to turn outward in gratitude and generosity. Gratitude becomes “our home in the presence of God,” or, in Henri Nouwen’s words, an “intimate participation in the Divine Life itself” that “reaches out far beyond our own self to God, to all of creation, to the people who gave us life, love, and care.”

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NOV 26, 2025 Seeing Beyond “Me and God”

Can I have a relationship with God without going to church? Church leaders want people to believe that church participation is essential and that committing to a local congregation is part of one’s Christian duty. On the other hand, the American church—perhaps more than any other—has emphasized having a “personal relationship with Jesus Christ.” The notion that it’s just “me and God” fits our romantic notions of rugged individualism. Our culture champions the independent spirit of the explorer, the cowboy, the pioneer, and the entrepreneur. So, it makes sense that in the religious realm, American culture would also emphasize the individual’s connection to God. Some biblical characters appear to fit this pattern of “me and God.” Think of Moses facing down the power of Egypt, or David defying the might of Goliath and the Philistine army. Daniel stands his ground repeatedly while exiled in Babylon, and eventually gets thrown to the lions as a result. Each of these stories fits our cultural narrative of a heroic individual whose faith compels him to defy both the odds and popular opinion. But a closer inspection of Scripture may reveal the “me and God” framework is one we’ve imposed on the text rather than one we’ve learned from the text.A closer look at Daniel’s faith, for example, reveals an important challenge to our assumptions about having a “personal relationship” with God. Daniel is a very unusual character in the Bible. He is one of the very few heroes with a blemish-free record. Nearly every Old Testament figure (Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, etc.) failed in a significant way or sinned dramatically against God. But not Daniel. I’m not saying Daniel never sinned, only that it’s never recorded in Scripture. He seems to epitomize the rugged, righteous, individual faith our culture esteems. That’s why his prayer, recorded in Daniel 9, is so remarkable. Notice the pronouns he uses: “O Lord, the great and awesome God…wehave sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled…wehave not listened…to us belongs open shame…because we have sinned against you….”.Daniel’s prayer is accurate—God’s people were guilty of sin, but there is no evidence that Daniel himself ever participated in their wickedness. So, why does he include himself in their guilt? It’s because Daniel recognized a facet of relating to God that we often overlook. While we have a “personal relationship with Jesus Christ,” we also have a collective relationship with him. It’s not just “me and God,” it’s also “us and God.” Belonging to Christ also means belonging to his people. Sharing in his glory also means sharing in their guilt. Calling God our Father also means calling those within the church our sisters and brothers. The testimony of the Bible is clear that Jesus is not merely reconciling separate individuals but a people to God. DAILY SCRIPTURE DANIEL 9:4-8 1 CORINTHIANS 12:14-16 WEEKLY PRAYER. From William Laud (1573 – 1645) Most gracious Father, we most humbly beseech you for your holy church. Fill it with all truth; in all truth with all peace. Where it is corrupt, purge it; where it is in error, direct it; where anything is amiss, reform it; where it is right, strengthen and confirm it; where it is in need, furnish it; where it is divided and torn apart, make up its breaches, O holy One of Israel. Amen.

In All Circumstances

Brian McLaren highlights how gratefulness is a recurring theme in the Gospels: 

Jesus makes it clear that a life lived to fulfill God’s dream for creation will involve suffering. But even here, Jesus implies that there is reason for gratitude. You see it in the Beatitudes, Jesus’s eightfold way of happiness (Matthew 5:3–12). There is a blessing in poverty, he says; to the degree you miss out on the never-enough system, you partake of God’s dream. There is a blessing in the pain of loss, because in your grief you experience God’s comfort. There is blessing in being unsatisfied about the injustice in our world, he says; as God’s justice comes more and more, you will feel more and more fulfilled…. 

With these counterintuitive sayings and others like them, Jesus enrolls us in advanced classes in the school of gratitude. He shows us the disadvantages of advantages, and the advantages of disadvantages. He will make this paradox most dramatic through his own death; his suffering and crucifixion will eventually bring hope and freedom to all humanity, hope and freedom that could come no other way. Here is the deepest lesson of gratitude, then. We are to be grateful not just in the good times, but also in the bad times; to be grateful not just in plenty, but also in need; to maintain thankfulness not just in laughter, but also through tears and sorrow. One of Jesus’s followers says that we should even rejoice in trials, because through trials come patience, character, wisdom (James 1:2–3). And another says, “I have learned to be content with whatever I have” (Philippians 4:11), so he can instruct, “Give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thessalonians 5:18). 

The words “in all circumstances” shouldn’t be confused with “for all circumstances,” of course. But neither should they be thinned to mean “in easy circumstances.” Even in pain, we can find a place of gratitude, a place where alongside the agony of loss we still count and appreciate what remains…. 

You may lose a loved one, or facet after facet of your physical health, but you can still be grateful for what you have left. And what if you lose more, and more, and more, if bad goes to worse? Perhaps at some point, all of us are reduced to despair, but my hunch is—and I hope I never need to prove this in my own life, but I may, any of us may—having lost everything, one may still be able to hold on to one’s attitude, one’s practiced habit of gratitude, of turning to God in Job-like agony and saying, “For this breath, thanks. For this tear, thanks. For this memory of something I used to enjoy  but have now lost, thanks. For this ability not simply to rage over what has been taken, but to celebrate what was once given, thanks.” 

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Unity vs. Uniformity. Skye Jethani

Where God’s Spirit is present, you will find a community that transcends differences. People will be bound to each other in a way that makes no earthly sense. The ordinary bonds of unity, like culture, politics, class, or ethnicity, will be insufficient to explain what connects the people of Christ. In his church, enemies will be friends, divisions will be mended, hatreds will be healed, and offenses will be overcome. Where God’s Spirit is not present, however, a “Christian” community will accept a counterfeit kind of connection; a perception of unity that comes by forcibly eliminating all differences. What human efforts produce is mere uniformity where external behaviors, appearances, and preferences do not deviate. In such communities, everyone thinks the same, speaks the same, prefers the same music, and pursues the same goals. In other words, human power alone can produce a community that would probably exist even without the supernatural presence of God’s Spirit, and it may even be an effective organization—but it would not be a church. As A.W. Tozer said, “One hundred religious persons knit into a unity by careful organization do not constitute a church any more than eleven dead men make a football team.”A few years ago, I was passing through Frankfurt Airport in Germany. In the middle of the terminals were large glass boxes, about eight feet square, with a door. Above each box was a sign that said, “CAMEL.” They were smoking chambers sponsored by Camel cigarettes. Smokers were crammed inside like animals in a zoo exhibit, while other travelers stopped, pointed, and even took pictures of the strange humans on display in the smoke-filled habitats.A church built on human uniformity rather than the Spirit’s unity is like those smoking chambers. At first glance, these churches appear to be a tight community of people all committed to the same activity. Look more closely, however, and churches without the Spirit’s power are just a group of strangers who gather occasionally in a box, blow smoke at each other, and appear very odd to those on the outside.When the Spirit builds a church, on the other hand, it is possible to experience far more than just uniformity. The Spirit fosters a unity that rests far deeper than conformity to social, cultural, and behavioral preferences. It’s a oneness rooted in communion with Jesus himself. Again, A.W. Tozer captures the truth well:“Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers met together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become ‘unity’ conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.” DAILY SCRIPTURE EPHESIANS 4:1-6 JOHN 17:20-23 WEEKLY PRAYER From William Laud (1573 – 1645) Most gracious Father, we most humbly beseech you for your holy church. Fill it with all truth; in all truth with all peace. Where it is corrupt, purge it; where it is in error, direct it; where anything is amiss, reform it; where it is right, strengthen and confirm it; where it is in need, furnish it; where it is divided and torn apart, make up its breaches, O holy One of Israel. Amen.

Gratitude and Humility

Father Richard Rohr reminds us that when we receive everything as a gift, we can live gratefully, allowing the energies of life and love to flow through us for the benefit of the whole. 

In Philippians 4:6–7, Paul sums up an entire theology of prayer practice in very concise form: “Pray with gratitude, and the peace of Christ, which is bigger than knowledge or understanding, will guard both your mind and your heart in Christ Jesus.” From that place we stop making distinctions based on our personal preferences and judgments. Only a pre-existent attitude of gratitude, a deliberate choice of love over fear, a desire to be positive instead of negative, will allow us to live in the spacious place Paul describes as “the peace of Christ.” [1] 

All the truly great persons I have ever met are characterized by what I would call radical humility and gratitude. They are deeply convinced that they are drawing from another source; they are instruments. Their genius is not their own; it is borrowed. We are moons, not suns, except in our ability to pass on the light. Our life is not our own; yet, at some level, enlightened people know that their life has been given to them as a sacred trust. They live in gratitude and confidence, and they try to let the flow continue through them. They know that “love is repaid by love alone,” as both St. Francis of Assisi and St. Thérèse of Lisieux have said. [2]  

It is important that we ask, seek, and knock to keep ourselves in right relationship with life itself. Life is a gift, totally given to us without cost, every day of it, and every part of it. A daily and chosen attitude of gratitude will keep our hands open to expect that life, allow that life, and receive that life at ever-deeper levels of satisfaction—but never to think we deserve it. Those who live with such open and humble hands receive life’s “gifts, full measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over into their lap” (Luke 6:38). In my experience, if we are not radically grateful every day, resentment always takes over. Moreover, to ask for “our daily bread” is to recognize that it is already being given. Not to ask is to take our own efforts, needs, and goals—and ourselves—far too seriously.

In the end, it is not our own doing, or grace would not be grace. It is God’s gift, not a reward for work well done. It is nothing for us to be boastful about. We are God’s work of art, created in Christ Jesus. All we can do is be what God’s Spirit makes us to be, and be thankful to God for the riches God has bestowed on us. Humility, gratitude, and loving service to others are probably the most appropriate responses we can make. [4]  

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Do I Say Thanks?

Womanist theologian Dr. Yolanda Pierce considers the gratitude of the ten lepers Jesus heals in Luke 17:11–18: 

Ten people broken and ostracized. Ten people crying out for deliverance. Ten people cleansed by the power of the Great Physician. Ten people able to return to their homes and families. And only one returns to say thank you…. 

But this passage is not about the thank-you as much as it is about the returning and the remembering. In the story, only one of those healed returns to Jesus. He does not just say thank you; he throws himself at the feet of Jesus and cries out in a loud voice. This is not polite gratitude for a favor done. This is the cry of someone who has been restored to a healthy condition, a condition he thought unattainable.  

Gratitude, real thankfulness, is a mental return to the moment of need—a physical, spiritual or emotional need…. Gratitude requires returning to that moment of need even after the need has been met. 

Pierce reflects on how she has been in the position of each character in the story:  

I have been the broken one in need of healing, who fails to return to my moment of need and to remember after I have been healed. Full of energy and new life, I have forgotten to acknowledge the source of my strength and say thank you…. 

I have also been the one who has returned, throwing myself at the feet of those who have so richly blessed me. I have at times heeded my grandmother’s advice to “give others their flowers while they are still living.” Whether with real flowers or words of praise, I have at times remembered to return in gratitude to those teachers or neighbors or colleagues who have blessed my life even if they did not know it.  

But nothing has humbled me more than to be on the receiving end of someone’s gratitude. After a long season of pouring out pieces of my heart and soul, thinking no one understands or appreciates my efforts, I may receive a card or note or a visit with a word of thanks. Tears flood my eyes when this happens, because at that moment I truly understand the power of gratitude. The recipient has been blessed, and their expression of gratitude humbles and blesses the gift giver.  

It is in this space of mutuality—giving and receiving, thanking and being thanked, returning and remembering—that we can truly appreciate the story of the one man with leprosy who returns with words of thanks. He is not only cleansed; in his expression of gratitude, we can locate his complete healing. The cleansing from the disease takes place after only a few words from the Healer. But the full healing of his mind and body happens when he acknowledges his need, gratitude, and love for the Divine One. Ten are cleansed, but only one, through remembrance and return, is made completely whole.  

Overcoming a Fear of the Other

Friday, November 21, 2025

The more we bump into the folks who are so-called “other,” the more we are stretched and the more we are pulled out of bias. We have new truths, because we have tangible evidence of the beautiful, powerful creativity of our God who made all of this diversity for us to enjoy.  
—Jacqui Lewis, Learning How to See  

Brian McLaren writes that Jesus’ model of acceptance, inclusion, and love for “the other” can help us overcome and heal our biases, particularly “contact bias.”  

When I don’t have intense and sustained personal contact with “the other,” my prejudices and false assumptions go unchallenged. Think of the child who is told by people he trusts that people of another race, religion, culture, sexual orientation, or class are dirty and dangerous. 

You can immediately see the self-reinforcing cycle: those people are dirty or dangerous, so I will distrust and avoid them, which means I will never have sustained and respectful interactive contact with them, which means I will never discover that they are actually wonderful people to be around. 

In this way, the prejudice cycle spins on, unchallenged across generations. As prejudice persists, it becomes embedded in cultures and institutions, creating systems of racism and hatred, marginalizing groups who are stigmatized, dehumanized, scapegoated, exploited, oppressed, or even killed. [1]  

I especially love the way Jesus challenges contact bias. Jesus reached out to the other at the table and put the other in the spotlight by giving the other a voice. On page after page of the Gospels, Jesus doesn’t dominate the other, or avoid the other…. Instead, he incarnates into the other, joins the other in solidarity, protects the other, listens to the other, serves the other, and even lays down his life for the other…. In each case, he moves victims of scapegoating and exclusion from the margins to center stage so their voices are heard. [2] 

Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis leads what she describes as a “multi-everything” congregation in New York City. She views inclusion as central to the gospel call to love: 

The one we follow into mission and ministry—Jesus the Christ—was an avowed boundary crosser, a reformer of the religious and secular culture of his time. We are in good company when we lead the way on radical inclusion of those different from ourselves. In some contexts that might mean a black church reaching out to Korean neighbors, a Latino congregation starting a ministry to immigrant families from North Africa, or a Chinese church hosting an afterschool program for African American junior high students…. We believe the commitment to inclusion and diversity is a high calling, issued to all who count themselves as Christians, no matter what our ethnicity or culture. [3] 

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John Chaffee 5 On Friday

For a while now, I have been fascinated by church doors as symbols of hope and safety.  Here is one I came across in the past two weeks.)

John Chaffee

1.

“If you label me, you negate me.”

– Soren Kierkegaard, Danish Philosopher

The human person is far too complex to summarize under any title.  To be labeled anything is a broad stroke that eliminates the nuances, feelings, stances, and paradoxes of what it means to be human.

Let’s take a moment and think about all the standard titles we use today…

Republican

Democrat

Libertarian

Believer

Atheist

Agnostic

Scientist

Professor

Park Ranger

Father

Mother

Child

Homeless

Rich

Poor

The list can go on and on.

At best, our labels only name one dimension of what it means to be who we are.

It is for this reason that names are better than labels.

2.

“Christ was never in a hurry.”

– Mary Slessor, Missionary to Nigeria

This one is quite a punch.

I admit to often thinking about the next thing while in the present. I am also prone to focusing on the next week or month at the expense of the now.

Modernity tells us that efficiency is one of the highest goals: to get things done as quickly as possible at a quality that is either “good enough” or “perfect.”

All of this contributes to a culture that hyperfocus’s on hurry.

But Christ was never in a hurry.

According to our records, Jesus walked almost everywhere.

So, at best, God was content to go 2.5 miles per hour.

Also, if the universe is 13.8 billion years old, that means God took God’s time to get to us.

Yep.

This God is not in a hurry.

3.

“Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone—we find it with [one] another. We do not discover the secret of our lives merely by study and calculation in our own safe and isolated meditations. The meaning of life has to be revealed to us in love, by the one we love.“

– Thomas Merton, Trappist Monk

As a head-oriented person, love has been too much of a theory.

That is not to say that I was not loved, but that over time, my head got the better of my heart. Frankly, my life experiences encouraged me to distrust love while at the same time wanting it on my terms.

Love is dangerous.  It requires a vulnerability that exposes our weaknesses and insecurities.

Theories are never dangerous.  They require nothing of us than to play with them in our imaginations.

So when I came across this quote from Merton in No Man is an Island, I had to accept that I was too independent and isolated.  No one is made whole or human by standing at a safe distance from love.  Myself included.

Love is our true destiny, our true identity, and it makes us whole again.

4.

“Justice is what love looks like in public.”

– Dr. Cornel West, American Theologian

I reject the notion that faith should not be political.  I do, however, reject the idea that it should be bipartisan.

If God cared that humanity created a healthy household and economy (oikonomia), we likely should pay more attention to making certain justice happens in the public arena as well.

5.

“Good souls many will one day be horrified at the things they now believe of God.”

– George MacDonald, Scottish Preacher

This past week, I met with a couple in spiritual direction.

It was a lovely time, and I consider doing those sessions a privilege.

One of the things we said is that we are relatively okay with people converting to Christianity. However, we are not OK with people having “micro-conversions” within Christianity. We don’t always validate it when people “fine-tune” their understanding of faith or change a stance within the faith.

The Apostles Creed is an important document or statement of faith, not only because it is one of the earliest formulations of the faith, but also because of its brevity.  There is a lot left out.

This leads me to think that there are a whole number of stances, positions, or opinions that are up for debate.

And so, thank goodness, we can constantly improve our understanding of this mystery we call “God” throughout our lives.

Moving Beyond What We Already Know

Thursday, November 20, 2025

Father Richard explains how learning to see beyond our biases is essential for the ongoing conversion of faith.  

Learning how to see our biases is a psychological exercise, but one with immediate theological and social implications. It demands self-knowledge and the crucial need to recognize (1) when we are in denial about our own shadow and capacity for illusion; (2) our capacity to project our own fears and shadows onto other people and groups; (3) our capacity to face and carry our own issues; and (4) the social, institutional, and political implications of not doing this work. 

If some Christians think that this is mere psychology, then they surely need to know that Jesus himself was a consummate analyst of human nature and named many of the issues that we call today “denial,” “bias,” “projection,” and “the shadow self.” [1] 

Brian McLaren describes why Jesus’ teachings so effectively freed people from an over-attachment to their own way of seeing: 

Jesus inspired and “abducted” people through immersive and imaginative experiences—including parables and powerful metaphors, respectful conversations, encounters with “the other,” field trips, and other forms of experiential learning. Following his example, we discover that it’s usually a far more effective portal out of confirmation bias than purely intellectual arguments. 

When you aggressively attack people’s familiar ideas, they tend to respond defensively. They dig in their heels and become even more firmly attached to the very ideas that they need to be liberated from. The doorway out of confirmation bias is not argument but imagination.  

That’s why Jesus, like other effective communicators, constantly told stories, stories that grabbed people by the imagination and transported them into another imaginative world: 

… there once was a woman who put some yeast into a huge batch of dough [Matthew 13:33] 

… there once was a man who had two sons [Luke 15:11] 

… this man was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho [Luke 10:30] 

… a woman once lost a coin [Luke 15:8] … 

Through these short “imaginative vacations” to another world, Jesus helped people see from a new vantage point. He used imagination to punch a tiny hole in their walls of confirmation bias, and through that tiny hole, some new light could stream in and let them know of a bigger world beyond their walls…. 

[Jesus] didn’t spend a lot of time repeating or refuting the false statements of his critics, and he didn’t counterpunch when he was attacked or insulted, but instead, he used every criticism as an opportunity to restate, clarify, and illustrate his true statements. [2] 

Richard adds:  

It’s so hard to be vulnerable, to say to our neighbor, “I don’t know everything” or to say to our soul, “I don’t know anything at all.” Yet Jesus says the only people who can recognize and be ready for what he’s talking about are the ones who come with the mind and heart of a child (see Matthew 18:3). We must never presume that we see “all” or accurately. We must always be ready to see anew. [3] 

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Sarah Young

Jesus Calling: November 20

I AM pleased with you, My child. Allow yourself to become fully aware of My pleasure shining upon you. You don’t have to perform well in order to receive My Love. In fact, a performance focus will pull you away from Me, toward some sort of Pharisaism. This can be a subtle form of idolatry: worshiping your own good works. It can also be a source of deep discouragement when your works don’t measure up to your expectations.
     Shift your focus from your performance to My radiant Presence. The Light of My Love shines on you continually, regardless of your feelings or behavior. Your responsibility is to be receptive to this unconditional Love. Thankfulness and trust are your primary receptors. Thank Me for everything; trust in Me at all times. These simple disciplines will keep you open to My loving Presence.

RELATED SCRIPTURE:

Ephesians 2:8-9 (NIV)
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.

Ephesians 3:16-19 (NIV)
16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Psalm 62:8 (NIV)
8 Trust in him at all times, you people;
    pour out your hearts to him,
    for God is our refuge.

The Power of Confirmation Bias

Brian McLaren discusses one of the most powerful kinds of bias: Confirmation Bias.  

We all have filters: What do I already believe? Does this new idea or piece of information confirm what I already think? Does it fit in the frame I’ve already constructed? 

If so, I can accept it. 

If not, in all likelihood, I’m simply going to reject it as unreasonable and unbelievable, even though doing so is, well, unreasonable. 

I do this, not to be ignorant, but to be efficient. My brain (without my conscious awareness, and certainly without my permission) makes incredibly quick decisions as it evaluates incoming information or ideas. Ideas that fit in are easy and convenient to accept, and they give me pleasure because they confirm what I already think. 

But ideas that don’t fit easily will require me to think, and think twice, and maybe even rethink some of my long-held assumptions. That kind of thinking is hard work. It requires a lot of time and energy. My brain has a lot going on, so it interprets hard work like this as pain.  

It’s as if I’m presented with a new picture that won’t fit in my old frame and so requires me to build a new one. Wanting to save me from that extra reframing work, my brain presses a “reject” or “delete” button when a new idea presents itself. “I’ll stick with my current frame, thank you very much,” it says. And it gives me a little jolt of pleasure to reward me for my efficiency.  

You may have heard the old saying that people only change their minds when the pain of not changing surpasses the pain of changing. That old saying is all about confirmation bias.

In an episode of the Learning How to See podcast, Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis speaks of confirmation bias in this way:  

We are all wired by what we’ve experienced to be in search of a story with an ending … that feels like it has a completion. The stories that we gravitate to are the ones that make sense to us, stories that fit, stories that feel like they have continuity, connection to the past, where we’ve been…. Those stories that we will follow are the ones that feel true, feel like they have continuity to our past and that resonate with the trajectory of our lives. We’re looking for the story that doesn’t necessarily change our minds; we’re actually looking for the story that confirms what’s in our minds.

As we seek to recognize the ways we are influenced by bias, McLaren offers this prayer:

Source of all truth, (Coach) help me to hunger for truth, even if it upsets, modifies, or overturns what I already think is true. Guide me into all the truth I can bear and stretch me to bear more, so that I may always choose the whole truth, even with disruption, over half- truths with self-deception. Grant me the passion to follow wisdom wherever it leads. Thank you.

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An Unworldly Strength. from Skye Jethani

On the night Jesus was betrayed, before his arrest, he prayed to his Father in the Garden of Gethsemane. Luke described him as being in agony. The fear and pain were so intense that “his sweat became like great drops of blood falling to the ground” (Luke 22:44). This is not the image of a serene Messiah accepting his fate, but of a frightened man wrestling with the darkest evil our world can dispense. But through prayer, Luke says Jesus was strengthened. The power given to him, however, was not like the world’s power. When the soldiers arrived to arrest him, his disciples were terrified, and in their fear, some fled, and others attacked. Peter drew a sword and severed the ear of one of the men. This is what the world’s power looks like. It fights. It attacks. It kills.The strength Jesus carried was different. Displaying a power not of this world, he knelt to the ground, picked up the severed ear of his enemy, and healed him. “Put your sword back,” he told Peter. “For all who take the sword will perish by the sword” (Matthew 26:52). Through prayer, Jesus’ fear had been transformed into faith. His faith gave him strength. And this strength was revealed through love. Today, fear permeates the American church. Many Christians have been told their faith and their communities are under attack, and like the disciples in Gethsemane, they believe the only option is to fight fire with fire. Fear has allowed the church to justify all manner of things inconsistent with Jesus’ character. In fear, the church attacks those perceived to be a threat. In fear, the church uses the weapons of the world—coercion, deception, anger, and hate—to protect itself rather than trusting God to defend his people. The true church, however, knows that the same unworldly strength Jesus displayed in the garden—the strength of faith and love—is still available to us. Consider the story of Praying Jacob, a slave who lived in Maryland before the Civil War. It was his habit to stop his work periodically in the fields to pray. This practice gave Jacob his nickname, and it also enraged his owner, a cruel and terrible man named Saunders. One day Saunders came up to Jacob while he was praying and put a gun to his head. He ordered him to stop praying and get back to work. Jacob finished his prayers and invited Saunders to pull the trigger. “Your loss will be my gain,” he said. “I have a soul and a body; the body belongs to you, but my soul belongs to Jesus.” Saunders was so shaken by Jacob’s strength and supernatural lack of fear that he never touched him again. Praying Jacob’s serenity came from the assurance of his identity. He knew he belonged to Jesus, and nothing could ever remove him from his hand. Not a cruel master and not even death. This was the same faith Jesus displayed in the garden and throughout his journey to the cross. He knew he belonged to his Father. Despite the betrayal and abandonment of his friends. Despite the injustice of the authorities. Despite the mocking and torture of the Romans. Despite the insults and ridicule hurled at him from the crowds. Jesus still found the strength to love because he knew who he was and whose he was.Like Jesus and Praying Jacob, if the church learns to listen to the voice of God in prayer, the weapons of the world will become less tempting. Through prayer, the church will learn that fighting fire with fire only burns the house down faster. And in prayer, the church will discover its fear is transformed into faith and its anger into love.  DAILY SCRIPTURE MATTHEW 26:47-56 EPHESIANS 4:4-7 WEEKLY PRAYER. From Anselm (1033 – 1109) O Lord, we bring before you the distress and dangers of peoples and nations, the pleas of the imprisoned and the captive, the sorrows of the grief-stricken, the needs of the refugees, the importance of the weak, the weariness of the despondent, and the diminishments of the aging. O Lord, stay close to all of them, Amen.

Biases at Work Within All of Us

Brian McLaren has identified sixteen biases that prevent us from seeing things in their complexity and with greater clarity: 

People can’t see what they can’t see. Their biases get in the way, surrounding them like a high wall, trapping them in ignorance, deception, and illusion. No amount of reasoning and argument will get through to them, unless we first learn how to break down the walls of bias. So what are the specific kinds of bias we need to address, in others, yes, but also in ourselves?… 

Confirmation Bias: We judge new ideas based on the ease with which they fit in with and confirm the only standard we have: old ideas, old information, and trusted authorities. As a result, our framing story, belief system, or paradigm excludes whatever doesn’t fit. 

Complexity Bias: Our brains prefer a simple falsehood to a complex truth. 

Community Bias: It’s almost impossible to see what our community doesn’t, can’t, or won’t see. 

Complementarity Bias: If you are hostile to my ideas, I’ll be hostile to yours. If you are curious and respectful toward my ideas, I am more likely to respond in kind. 

Competency Bias: We don’t know how much (or little) we know because we don’t know how much (or little) others know. In other words, incompetent people assume that most other people are about as incompetent as they are. As a result, they underestimate their own incompetence and consider themselves at least of average competence. 

Consciousness Bias: Some things simply can’t be seen from where I am right now. But if I keep growing, maturing, and developing, someday I will be able to see what is now inaccessible to me. 

Comfort or Complacency Bias: I prefer not to have my comfort disturbed. 

Conservative/Liberal Bias: I lean toward nurturing fairness and kindness, or towards strictly enforcing purity, loyalty, liberty, and authority, as an expression of my political identity. 

Confidence Bias: I am attracted to confidence, even if it is false. I often prefer the bold lie to the hesitant truth. 

Catastrophe Bias: I remember dramatic catastrophes but don’t notice gradual decline (or improvement). 

Contact Bias: When I don’t have intense and sustained personal contact with “the other,” my prejudices and false assumptions go unchallenged. 

Cash Bias: It’s hard for me to see something when my way of making a living requires me not to see it. 

Conspiracy Bias: Under stress or shame, our brains are attracted to stories that relieve us, exonerate us, or portray us as innocent victims of malicious conspirators.  

Constancy/Baseline Bias: Early in life, our brains set a baseline of normalcy based on what we constantly experience day to day. What our brains determine as normal or constant becomes acceptable to us. Later in our life, our baselines may be reset when a new normal becomes our constant experience. [This is the flipside of Catastrophe Bias.]  

Certainty/Closure Bias: Our brains find it difficult to rest when we feel uncertainty, so we would often rather reach for premature closure on an unwarranted certainty than live with appropriate uncertainty. We may even prefer a pessimistic certainty to a potentially optimistic uncertainty. 

Cleverness Bias: Our brains are vigilant to protect us against deceptions, and this vigilance against deception can make us so habitually skeptical that we become cynical, rejecting all good or encouraging information as naïve. In protecting ourselves from danger, we can unintentionally insulate ourselves from positive possibilities.  

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Welcome to Bradley Jersak’s Substack! In the parable of the prodigal son(s), I love the verse, “And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.” That’s my story. I hope that in the posts to follow, you’ll see it shine through. 

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Living Under the Gaze of God – Bradley Jersak

Riffing off Tony Bartlett

Last week, my friend Tony Bartlett posted a note on his socials that helped me reflect on developments in my spiritual journey. He spoke of ‘three modes of God,’ language some folks stumbled over (no, he’s not a ‘Modalist’). But his explanation was clear. Tony was describing stages or cycles of our understanding and experience.

1. Looking AT God – referring to our various notions or ideas about God. Not God ‘as such’ but the projections create, often in our own image, and frequently toxic.

2. Looking FOR God – referring to our quest for God, rooted in authentic longing, expressed as faith practices, which may even serve to deconstruct unhelpful constructs that we ought to leave behind.

3. The Gaze OF God – Tony says it beautifully: “The gaze OF God is so gentle you hardly notice it, and then, when you do, it seems to be there only a certain moment in the past. But then you come to understand this gentle gaze is constant and is here in the present, even when you don’t directly know it. The “I AM I AM” of Exodus and Isaiah.”

We can use this outline to trace growth in our lives, reflecting on each in turn with a series of simple questions:

LOOKING AT GOD QUESTIONS

Looking AT God – Hopefully, we come to realize our ideas of God and our language for God will always be inadequate. Knowing that, we still draw inferences and develop images from our experience (or not) of the Divine. That’s normal and even fine so long as we don’t delude ourselves into confusing communion with God (fully available) with getting our heads around the Infinite (no way). God will always be greater than our minds can grasp. 

Questions: How has your perception of God changed over the last decade? Since childhood? Fill in the blank: “Over time, I have come to see God as less _______ and more ________.” Do those shifts feel like growth? Or have regressed? Do you experience greater nearness? Or have you grown more distant? Does the relationship feel more or less intimate? More or less personal? Can you trace reasons for the difference? Was it natural growth? Or deep questioning? Or traumatic experiences? Was there a particular community, mentor, or author who helped? How did they effect change in how you Look AT God.

LOOKING FOR GOD QUESTIONS

Looking FOR God – If we think about our quest FOR God in terms of faith practices, we can also ask how those have changed along with our image of God. Let’s not be too judgy about our faith practices. Simply observe how they have shifted over time.

Questions: How has your spirituality changed over the last decade? Since childhood? Do you pray or meditate? How has that developed? What does worship look like for you? Where do you sense a Living Connection with God and with others most naturally? 

When I asked my friend Paul Young about his faith practices, he began recounted the ways he once looked FOR God through prayer and meditation—practices that were a means to communion. But like Tony’s quote above, he came to experience union and communion with God almost continually. He didn’t need a program to get and stay there (Jesus called this ‘abiding in the Vine’).

But then I began to observe a wide array of ‘ways of being’ he practices all the time: remaining present, attentive listening, deep conversations, visiting friends on death row, praying in the Spirit, and of course, his famous hugs.

How about you? What faith practices come most naturally to you? How do they serve your quest FOR God? Have some hindered your sense of presence? Why?

THE GAZE OF GOD QUESTIONS

The Gaze OF God – Sometimes we become so attached to the quest FORGod that our practices become the point. God becomes the proverbial carrot dangling on the end of the stick—always just out of reach, demanding more religious activity, more passion, more zeal, but never delivering. The apostle Peter called this ‘clouds without rain.’

At some point, our souls need do come to rest under his tender gaze. This is ‘the God who sees me’ of Hagar. Like the Psalmist, who was like “a deer panting after water, a soul thirsty for God,” but later was able to sing:

Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty:
neither do I exercise myself in great matters, 
or in things too high for me.

Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, 
as a child that is weaned of his mother:
my soul is even as a weaned child.

(Psalm 131)

God invites us “Be still and know that I am God.” I doubt this is linear. We go through seasons and cycles and spiral, so it’s a question of where I am on the pilgrimage.

Questions: Do you ever get the sense of living under God’s caring gaze? Have you discovered the grace of the divine glance? Are you able to cease striving and yet know you’re loved? Do you find getting there difficult or immediate? What seems to help? When is your heart most at rest?

I hope these reflections work to remind you of God’s love for you, of God’s participation in your journey, and serve as an invitation to gratitude… 

God sees you, and that’s good news.

Our Operative Worldview

You are not here to verify, / Instruct yourself, or inform curiosity / Or carry report. You are here to kneel / Where prayer has been valid.
—T. S. Eliot, “Little Gidding” 

Father Richard Rohr considers how Jesus challenges the worldviews constructed by our religions, cultures, and family upbringings: 

Everybody looks at the world through their own lens, a matrix of culturally inherited qualities, family influences, and other life experiences. This lens, or worldview, truly determines what we bring to every discussion. When Jesus spoke of the reign of God, he was trying to change people’s foundational worldview. When Francis of Assisi described his “marriage to Lady Poverty,” he was using a lovely metaphor to explain his central thesis for life. When Americans identify money as “the bottom line,” they are revealing more about their real worldview than they realize. 

We would do well to get in touch with our own operative worldview. It is there anyway, so we might as well know what this highly influential window on reality is. It’s what really motivates us. Our de facto worldview determines what catches our attention and what we don’t notice at all. It’s largely unconscious and yet it drives us to do this and not that. It is surely important to become conscious of such a primary lens or we will never know what we don’t see and why we see other things out of all perspective. 

Until we can allow the gospel to move into that deepest level of the unconscious and touch our operative worldviews, nothing substantial is going to change. It will only be rearranging the furniture, not constructing a new room. True conversion is about constructing a new room—maybe even a whole new house! 

Our operative worldview is formed by three images that are inside every one of us. They are not something from outside; they have already taken shape within us. All we can do is become aware of them, which is to awaken them. The three images to be awakened and transformed are our image of self, our image of God, and our image of the world. A true hearing of the gospel transforms those images into a very exciting and, I believe, truthful worldview. When we say Christ is the truth, that’s what we mean. Christ renames reality correctly, according to what reality honestly is, putting aside whatever we think it is or whatever we fear it is. Reality is always better than any of us imagined or feared; there is joy associated with a true hearing of the gospel. 

All together, we could put it this way: “What should life be?” “Why isn’t it?” “How do we repair it?” When these are answered for us, at least implicitly, we have our game plan, and we can live with safety and purpose in this world. 

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Not as Rational as We Think

We may live in the same country, the same city, or even under the same roof, but we live in different realities.
—Brian McLaren, Learning How to See 

CAC faculty member Brian McLaren is concerned about the cost of our increasingly limited ability to see beyond our religious or political points of view.  

Over the last decade, I have felt increasingly alarmed about the vitriol, distrust, and destructive miscommunication that are tearing people apart everywhere I turn … in nations, in religious communities, in businesses, in non-profit organizations, in friendships, even in families. 

On social media, name-calling, misinformation, and propaganda squeeze out intelligent, honest, respectful conversation. In the mass media, accusations of “fake news” fly in all directions, leaving people wondering who to trust. In the world of religion, shallow, mean-spirited, or profit-hungry preachers draw huge crowds week after week, and they consistently appeal, not to the better angels of human nature, but to our unspoken fears and unacknowledged prejudices.  

In the world of politics, uninformed, dishonest, and manipulative candidates keep winning elections, telling people not what they need to hear, but what they want to hear. Because of our polarization and paralysis, major problems are going unresolved, which intensifies frustration on all sides, and leaves (literally) billions of us vulnerable to populist demagogues. 

The social fabric seems to be stretching so tight that it might rip apart. That scares me. “What’s going on here?” I keep asking myself….  

Philosopher George Lakoff challenges the mistaken idea that arose during the Enlightenment that it is possible to see issues clearly, based entirely on reason:  

Enlightenment reason says everybody reasons the same way…. Enlightenment reason says that all you need to do is get the facts, and everybody will reason to the right conclusion, since everybody has the same reason. No. If they have different worldviews, they’ll reason to different conclusions. Enlightenment reason does not recognize different worldviews. Enlightenment reason doesn’t admit framing. It doesn’t admit metaphorical thought. It doesn’t admit the way people really work. [1] 

McLaren describes how bias results when our worldviews become solidified:  

Here’s the simple truth I began to see as I observed the decline in reasonableness, monitored the rise in dysfunctional and even dangerous discourse, and reviewed the academic literature: 

People can’t see what they can’t see. 

We all, yes, even me—and more shockingly, even you, have a whole set of assumptions and limitations, prejudices and preferences, likes, dislikes and triggers, fears and conflicts of interest, blind spots and obsessions that keep us from seeing what we could and would see if we didn’t have them. 

We are almost always unconscious of these internal obstacles to seeing and understanding, which makes it even harder for us to address them. We are, you might say, blind to what blinds us. The name for these unconscious internal obstacles is bias. 

Bias makes us resist and reject messages we should accept and accept messages we should resist and reject. In short … we can’t see what we can’t see because our biases get in the way.