The Importance of Self-Acceptance Today we will discuss look at the importance of self-acceptance, for us as individuals and as a society. By self-acceptance, I mean not just that we like and are comfortable with ourselves, but that the self we accept be as close as possible to who we really are. Until we understand our true nature, we cannot be healthy, generous, or free. We cannot love or respect what we do not understand. Understanding ourselves has benefits beyond our own satisfaction, however, When we see and accept our own true self, we learn also to see, accept, love, and respect others. Thus self-acceptance is important for our communities.…
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Love, False Prophets, and Truth
Beware False Prophets In this week’s scripture reading, John 10:1-10, [1] Jesus warns us to beware the false prophet and heed only the true one. But how can we tell the false from the true? To answer this question, M. Russell Ballard, in a lecture given at the 1999 Latter Day Saints Conference, quotes Joseph Smith, founder of his faith, as saying, “We can accept nothing as authoritative but that which comes directly through the appointed channel, the constituted organizations of the Priesthood, which is the channel that God has appointed . . .” Anyone else, though he may claim to have received revelation from God, is an impostor. [2]…
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Choose Life – Deuteronomy, Greed, and Recovery
Moses and Choosing Life In the book of Deuteronomy, God says, “I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants might live.” (Deut 30:19 NRSV) I relish life. I want to be fully alive even when it hurts, which sometimes it definitely does, so that Bible passage appeals to me. But what does it really mean to choose blessings over curses and life over death? A rabbinical midrash on Moses’ death suggests an answer. The story goes that when it’s time for Moses to die, he refuses. God argues with him, the angels implore him, yet Moses insists he’s not…
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Esther, New Beginnings, and a Message for Our Times
A New Year and New Beginnings in Esther The book of Esther in the Hebrew Bible explains why Jews must celebrate Purim every year, a noisy, silly holiday that honors the deliverance of the Jewish people. With its story-telling, community, and drinking, it is not unlike how some people celebrate New Year’s Eve. That’s not why I chose to write about Esther, however. While looking for scripture verses about new beginnings, I discovered an article by Jack Wellman called “Five Stories about New Beginnings with Commentary.” One of the five he mentions is Esther. Really? Esther, about new beginnings? The General Story An orphan adopted by her cousin Mordecai, Esther…
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Of Specialness and Being Chosen
Terminal Uniqueness In recovery circles, you sometimes hear the phrase “terminal uniqueness.” That’s the belief that we’re different from everyone else, more sensitive, more romantic, special. We think we’re better than those “losers” who go to twelve-step groups, or we decide treatment programs aren’t for us because we know more than the counselors who lead the groups. Claiming specialness is a great way to avoid taking responsibility or having to change. Not all addicts feel “special,” of course, and you don’t have to have an addiction to suffer from terminal uniqueness. Regardless of the issues we face in life, when we convince ourselves we’re different, or that diets, programs, or…
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The Covenants We Make
The God of Abraham and Moses in Covenant The Abrahamic faiths are covenantal. In the Hebrew Scriptures, God makes a few different covenants with humans. With Noah, for instance, God agrees never again to destroy the earth with a flood. Then God promises to make Abraham the patriarch of countless descendants as long as he and his offspring become circumcised. Perhaps the most important covenant, though, is the one God made with the Israelites at Mt. Sinai. In the Middle East during the second millennium B.C.E., covenants were formal treaties that bound a vassal, who was the leader of a subordinate state, to a great and powerful king. In exchange…
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Temptation and Holy Innocence
Lead Us not Into Temptation In his version of the Lord’s Prayer, the Quaker educator, Parker Palmer, talks not about avoiding temptation, but about embracing innocence. “Lead us,” he prays, “to holy innocence,” one that is “[b]eyond the evil of our days.” [1] The primal couple, Adam and Eve, started life with “holy innocence.” Like protected children, they had no worries. As far as we know, God’s only rule for them was that they not eat from the Tree of Life. Everything else, He allowed. Was this because such innocents would never think to harm another being? Basking in the joy of paradise, and feeling no anger, animosity, fear, nor…
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The Mission of Epiphany
Before I wrote this column, I did not know much about the religious celebration of Epiphany. I had some idea about the secular version of epiphanies, those sudden insights that are triggered by insignificant and every-day events that appear for no reason we can figure out. When I think of epiphanies, I think of a time I was seeing my spiritual director, and she said the word “universe.” All of a sudden, I had a vision of the universe inside her heart, and I understood the universe didn’t really have any spatial dimensions. I realized that space, and time, too, were made up in our minds. If we could get…
