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From “Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life” by Richard Rohr So we need boundaries, identity, safety, and some degree of order and consistency to get started personally and culturally. We also need to feel “special”; we need our “narcissistic fix.” By that I mean, we all need some successes, response, and

From “What Makes You Come Alive: A Spiritual Walk with Howard Thurman” by Lerita Coleman Brown Howard Thurman mentored many activists in the civil rights movement and would come to serve as its unofficial spiritual guide and adviser. Drawn to his presence and wisdom, many civil rights leaders – including Bayard Rustin, James Farmer, James

From “Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life” by Henri Nouwen with Michael J. Christensen and Rebecca J. Laird What do I mean by seeing the world the way God sees it? This is important for discerning – for seeing rightly. In the Gospels, there are many examples of Jesus not giving a direct answer

From “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success” by Carol S. Dweck, PhD Which mindset do you have? Answer these questions about intelligence. Read each statement and decide whether you mostly agree with it or disagree with it. Questions 1 and 2 are the fixed mindset questions. Questions 3 and 4 reflect the growth mindset. Which

From “Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation” by Steven Johnson The platform builders and ecosystem engineers do not just open a door in the adjacent possible. They build an entire new floor.

From “Listening to Your Life: Daily Meditations with Frederick Buechner” by Frederick Buechner As Acedia, boredom is one of the Seven Deadly Sins. It deserves the honor. You can be bored by virtually anything if you put your mind to it, or choose not to. You can yawn your way through Don Giovanni or a

From “The Discipline of Inspiration: The Mysterious Encounter with God at the Heart of Creativity” by Carey Wallace Conventional wisdom on creation holds that artists tend to fall along a spectrum between the craftsman, whose trade is pure technique, and the shaman, guided by pure inspiration. Creation, according to this line of thinking, is also

From “The Soulwork of Justice: Four Movements for Contemplative Action” by Wesley Granberg-Michaelson It’s freedom that the deepest part of yourself yearns for. Not a freedom that centers on narcissistic notions of self, inflating your ego. Rather, it’s liberation from the obsessive, self-absorbed reactivity borne from being bound to the responses of others as the

From “Walk with Me: A Journey through the Landscape of Trauma” by Ellen Corcella People perceive chaplains as having a difficult, if not impossible, job. Friends in my church community sometimes remark, “I don’t know how you do it.” It is well known that chaplains show up when death lurks in the corner. But we

From “Dropout to Doctorate: Breaking the Chains of Educational Injustice” By Terrence Lester, PhD In 2014, Ta-Nehisi Coates’s  article “The Case for Reparations” went viral. Published in The Atlantic, it detailed the egregious injustices faced by Black people, including mistreatment, land theft, and strategic exclusion from homeownership. He writes, “From the 1930s through the 1960s,