What the metaphor of Job’s brother offers us is the responsibility to use our position to recognize that all human life is sacred. Our distance from Job’s pain comes with an obligation to continue to hold our communities to account while working separately in broader movements to end the war and achieve justice in Israel/Palestine.
In conceiving of going outside as a way of going home, friluftsliv invites us back to our most basic and essential way of being on this planet, as belonging here.
Work expands to fill the time allotted. I recommend that the clergy I coach set an ending time for their working day. If you always working longer than you plan, you will wear yourself out.
Mass-marketed prosperity and nationalistic forms of Christianity are anything but genuine. Anything but real and authentic. Anything but a radical Gospel for all. This revelation hit me like a shot of poteen.
In this season of constant divisiveness, I wonder how we recognize divine light in hearts of all nations to guide us all towards intentional co-creation for peace. Are the paths to freedom which were formed by faith by so many footprints still trusted paths in current strained national and global relationships?
Therapists, chaplains, but also clergy serving in congregational ministry are uniquely positioned to reduce stigma around suicide. Through preaching explicitly compassionate messages and being open about their own mental health struggles, clergy can authoritatively dispel myths around suicide that stem from toxic theologies.