Remember that show "the Wonder Years" starring Fred Savage? It was a great show, and sort of captures where I am going to go with my meditation this week. I too will be thinking about that period of my life. I welcome all who read to walk with me and reflect on your faith during that time of your life too.

One of my fundamental tasks in ministry to spread hope. The other is to tell the truth. This two things guide our ministry in the United Church of Christ. Read further and see how hope can transform and enrich your faith.

A big part of learning in our spiritual life comes from sharing stories. As we share our practices of faith with one another, we cannot only learn from each other, but also share in the highs and lows of those practices and support each other when it seems not to be going well. Yet, we keep doing it, over and over again. I've reflected on my practice here - won't you join me, and shore your experiences as well?

I am curious as to how people "surfing" i.ucc think of their earliest formaitons of faith? Was there anyone who had a huge affect on the way you saw God, even as a child? Was there a community of faith who nourished and impressed the power of faith and Spirit upon you? How does all of this shape and inform how you live out your faith today?

Care to chat with me a bit? All these questions and more will be answered--I hope!

How much time and attention do we each spend with the here and now? So often we become distracted by memories from the past and dreams for the future, that we forget to stop and look around us to see what we can learn from where we are sitting.

Have you ever gone to a church conference? If so, have you ever discovered anything exciting about being with folks who tend to think like you do? My part of the UCC in New York just had theirs, and lots of exciting and fun things happened. Here's some of my thoughts...

Over the next few weeks I will be contemplating the way in which our experiences of daily life are integrated with the way we develop our spiritual lives (both personally and communally) Please join me on this journey! I would love to have a lot of discussion with others about the integration of their spiritual lives and their day to day lives. Are they decidedly different, or are they fully integrated, or do they fall somewhere in between? Tell me what you think? And let's go deep - and talk about personal experiences here.

I noticed a lot of people have been reading what I said about Centering Prayer a few weeks ago. Now I am wondering how people's experience of this style of prayer is going? It's definitely not as easy as it seems! Drop me a line on this post if you can; I'd love to hear from you.

For some reason, Christ's mother Mary came through strong on the down-swing of this Mother's Day for me. It is a challenge to consider Mary's role in our personal and congregational lives, but it's a challenge I think we need to try to do nevertheless. So here are some of my thoughts...

I never saw a blacksmith at work before, that is, until this weekend! And it was interesting how much that observing moment reminded me of the spiritual quest. So here's a few words of wisdom about what it might mean to be melted, hammered, and shaped into something more durable than anything we've ever imagined for ourselves...