jimwdollar

The Wall of Death

There was nothing about being born from above, or toeing the straight and narrow, or minding your P’s and Q’s when Abraham was taking God up on the deal for progeny and promised lands. It was just a straightforward “I’ll be your God, and you’ll be my people” kind of understanding. There was nothing aboutContinue reading “The Wall of Death”

The Source and the Void

We have exactly the same access to the Source of Life and Being, to the presence of the sacred, to the Numen, as anyone ever. They weren’t closer to the Source in the old days—they weren’t holier than we are, or wiser. Their only advantage over us was that they had fewer illusions/distractions/escapes with whichContinue reading “The Source and the Void”

Ten Short Thoughts

1. The “Other World” Primal peoples always believed that the visible world is grounded upon the invisible world. The invisible world is the world of the unconscious (because we are not conscious of it), and it is the source of consciousness and life. It is the spiritual world, and the ground of the physical world.Continue reading “Ten Short Thoughts”

The Six Statements

There are six statements, which cannot be denied, yet cannot be affirmed without transforming Christianity as we know it. They are: Our Idea of God Is Not God. This is as self-evidently obvious as any statement ever. I don’t know of anyone who would dispute it. It flows from the Bible. “My thoughts are notContinue reading “The Six Statements”

The Evolution of the Idea of God

One of the 10,000 Spiritual Laws states, “Our idea of God is not God.” The Bible can be seen as the history of the evolution of the idea of God. If you read the Bible carefully noting inconsistencies, contradictions, incompatibilities, discrepancies and divergent views, you will come across a number of different ways of thinkingContinue reading “The Evolution of the Idea of God”

Influencing What Can Be Influenced

One of the things I like most about life is that we never know what’s coming. The universe is full of surprises. Who knows what tomorrow—or the next five minutes—will bring? Turn a corner, and life changes forever. We can’t count on anything. We spend all our time getting our ducks in a row, andContinue reading “Influencing What Can Be Influenced”

What Works?

We are here to grow up. This is the essence of the Spiritual Journey. It is the work of a true human being. And we grow up against our will all along the way. Growing up is squaring up to how things are, and what is called for in response. It is facing up toContinue reading “What Works?”

Prayer

I. Prayer is where we articulate the truth of how it is with us, sometimes with “sighs too deep for words.” We rob prayer of its vitality, and of its capacity to heal and restore our souls, bind up, make well and encourage us for the task at hand when we reduce it to aContinue reading “Prayer”

How the Church Changes It’s Mind

The process by which the church forms it’s beliefs can be symbolized by a tent. Isaiah sings a new song in a foreign land: “Enlarge the site of your tent, and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out; do not hold back; lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes” (Isaiah 54:2). Our tentContinue reading “How the Church Changes It’s Mind”

Community and Chaos

We cannot do it alone. However, together we can create an environment that enables us to do just about anything we can imagine. As members of communities of innocence, we come together to spark within one another the creative response to life. We come together to nurture that spark into a flame, and to sustainContinue reading “Community and Chaos”