What image?

We are made in the image of God. Physically? I have a hard time believing this, but made in the image of God spiritually, now this is something that I can ponder. What is the anatomy of the spirit? What is it made of? Are there different parts of the spirit, as there are different parts of the body?

Lately, I’ve been thinking about the spirit and it’s connection to the body- how the two influence one another, and how the parts of the body correspond with the seven chakras, or “energy centers” of the body. My opinion is that the spirit is energy. Ancient wisdom and science recognize that all of life has a very real electrical current running just below the surface of our physicality. You literally have electricity running through your being. When the body dies, the electrical current leaves the body, and as Einstein taught us, energy can neither be created nor destroyed, only transformed.

So, I suppose my question is this: Is my spirit put together in the image of God, and does that image relate to the energy centers of the body? What do you think? Comments and questions are more than welcome. 

Peace, Love, and Laughter,

Emily

Practice

What’s the point of practicing anything? In my opinion there are really two reasons: We practice because we want to get better at something, or we practice because it just feels good. When you were a child did anyone have to force you to “practice” swinging on the monkey bars, or playing patty-cake games? –Probably not. You did it because it just felt like fun, and the right thing to do. However, the seemingly trivial act of swinging on the monkey bars taught you about physical coordination, and the act of playing patty-cake games taught you about rhythm, rhyme, rules, and social interaction. Maybe you felt the drive to get better at swinging the monkey bars, but no child would begin practicing swinging on the monkey bars if it didn’t feel good. (We later make the goal of practicing to “get better” at something because of ego, and competition.)

I think that a spiritual practice can be likened to these examples. Don’t get me wrong, it’s ok to practice something because you want to get better at it, but if it doesn’t feel good anymore, you may want to re-examine your motivation of practice. Have you ever felt this way in your spiritual practice? It’s kind of hard to get motivated to do something if doesn’t feel good. I think that this is where contemporary Christianity in America loses a good number of people. We consider a spiritual practice to be a once a week event in a semi-lecture-class like environment. If that feels really good to you- awesome. I’m glad for you, but what about those of us who need a more hands-on experience to encounter God?

Some questions to consider:

1  .  What is your spiritual practice, and how is it similar or different from a typical Sunday morning church service?

2.       Does your practice feel good?

3.      How would you change a Sunday morning church service to better reflect the kind of spiritual practice that feels good?

I’m asking these questions in general terms, not necessarily specific to Pine Street Church and it’s services.

Peace, Love, and Laughter,

Emily

A Call to Community

I've been at this job at Pine Street Church for a little over a year now, and have written newsletter articles for almost that entire time each week. This week I’d like to shake things up a little bit. I give you my thoughts on any given subject, but there is no “congregational” newsletter sent back to me with your thoughts. So, I've created a blog with my newsletter musings. Let’s try this together. I’ll pose a question or provide a basis for discussion, and then you the reader can leave comments, and even pose your own questions in a discussion forum setting.

Without further ado, here are my musings for this week:

More and more as a society we are experiencing the phenomenon of globalization. Never in the history of civilization have cultures been more blended and integrated, at least on a surface level. We want to sample all that we can from the global buffet- electronics from Japan, music from the UK, wine from Australia, and cuisine from everywhere! Even religions are being served up. It would be strange to only eat dinner rolls at a buffet, right? Many people want to taste a little bit of everything. So, my question is this: As the world becomes more and more blended, and as cultures and thoughts converge, why can't a person have more than one religion on their plate? Furthermore, is this element of stagnancy, at least in part, responsible for the decline of religious commitment from young people who have never known anything other than globalization and diversity in their world?

Peace, Love, and Laughter,

Emily