Question of the day

Instead of trying to control everything, are we willing to surrender to our Higher Power whatever we believe our Higher Power to be?

Question of the day

It has been said that people die twice. The first time when their body dies and the second when the last person speaks their name. How do you maintain a connection with those who have gone before you?

Question of the day

What's the difference between love and dominance, love and possession, love and co-dependence?

Question of the day

The Stoics believed that change is neither good or bad, it just is. It's what we make of the change that determines our attitudes towards it. The stoics counseled acquiesce to the change that cannot be changed, and 12 step programs ask us to surrender to the things we cannot change. Twelve step programs often end with the Serenity prayer. Nietzsche went even farther and suggested that we love our fate, embrace the inevitable. Today we are told to "lean into it." How do you manage the changes in your life? Would you change the way you manage change? How?

The search for truth and meaning takes us to vision which cannot be empirically validated.

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. This search will lead us to vision which excludes judgment. The vision is not about information, validation, accuracy. It is about love and peace. It is about heaven on earth which cannot be empirically validated. It is not of this world. The vision of standing on the side of love cannot be measured. It is beyond measurement. In the last analysis it is experienced as a matter of faith.

Every now and then we get a glimpse that there must be something more to life. There is a faint memory of a time and place of comfort, peace, security, and well being. People in distress sometimes say, "I can't stand this any more. I can't go on. There are times when I wish I wasn't here."

"Do you have suicidal ideas, " I ask?

"Yeah, I do sometimes," is the answer.

"What keeps you from acting on your ideas," I ask?

"My kids, my dog, my ___________."

"Well, it's a wonder, given how miserable you are, that you haven't killed yourself by now," I say.

"I just can't bring myself to do it. I guess things aren't really that bad. I keep hoping that things will get better."

And it is this hope that keeps the person from ending their earthly life. And what does this hope consist of and where does it come from and how does it work?

"What is it that you are hoping will be different if you go on living," I ask?

"I just want things to be okay."

"Things are okay already if you could see beyond the drama in your life," I say.

"I guess," is the reply.

And there is a glimpse of a vision of heaven and peace on earth which has been blocked out by the workings of the ego. We have to admit that we are not in charge, not in control, not the agent of cure. We have to recognize, acknowledge, and surrender to a power far greater than our own and let go. In the letting go, we paradoxically experience peace.

Questions of the day

In our society we have become enamored with so many idols like money, sex, power,and intoxicants that we put before our love of God, the ground of our existence, the Spirit of Life, whatever we call our Higher Power. And so the Universe asks us repeatedly to chose between idolatry and love. What do you choose? How many times do we get seduced and have to choose again?

Question of the day

If every person's life is worth a story are you interested in hearing part of what it is?

Editor's note:

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