Entries in this category probe deeper thoughts about old age. Spirituality, self-image, relationships, hopes and yearnings — all the stuff of self-talk and core meaning for people who are older.
None of us would ever empty Easter of its power. Absent Easter’s premises and promises, the Christian life wouldn’t have much more to offer than a religion invented by science fiction writers or social malcontents. What, then, might happen if, after Easter had passed, we hadn’t changed one iota of our lives. Wouldn’t we be turning Easter into something artificial or empty? It would notMORE...
(I’m not sure where to go with this splotch of thoughts that keeps whirling around in my brain. So you can mark what follows as the kind of musing that stays around until it makes sense or invites action. This blog’s blob: Dysfunction that spreads.) I’ve seems lately that dysfunctions and dysfunctional people are cropping up everywhere. (My working definition: There areMORE...
(When I profiled Generation Dread: Finding Purpose in an Age of Climate Anxiety by Britt Wray, I noted what I thought might be an empty spot: The foundational nature of spiritual matters, perhaps best perceived and promoted in congregations. Today some continuing thoughts about those possibilities.) My premise here: Our congregations are communities (of belief and practice) that can deal wiselyMORE...
(Awhile back, I profiled Generation Dread: Finding Purpose in an Age of Climate Anxiety by Britt Wray. The book accumulates concepts that can be helpful in grasping the nature of climate anxiety, as well as our reactions to it. These few ideas caught my interest…) Narrative foreclosure Psychologist Ernst Bohlmeijer and colleagues (Netherlands’ University of Twente) coined this term to refer toMORE...
(Today’s entry is NOT about your nearby senior citizen lifestyle complex, or about Del Webb properties anywhere in the world. Instead, I’ve been thinking about how so many congregations are truly attractive.) Over the years I’ve noticed that some congregations don’t think of themselves as attractive anymore. That saddens me, because that kind of thinking can become as self-predictive as it may beMORE...
My climate anxiety peaks periodically. When that happens, Luke 9:23b (KJV) pops into my memory—“Deny yourself and take up your cross”—as one possible part of the solution to global warming. I wonder if a society-wide ascetic mindset—although not easily engaged—might tamp down the factors that are causing our planet’s ecosystems to unravel. That theology feels hard to put into practice. If I’mMORE...
One of Lent’s compelling narratives comes in the ritual of Confession. Its verbiage is striking: “Our fault, our own fault, our own most grievous fault.” These words suggest something more than garden-variety sinfulness or the “mortal sins” that Roman Catholics name as the most serious. Not only do we own our unrighteousness, but also openly admit its severe consequences: In a word: It’sMORE...
It’s Odd Old Words Day here at the sprawling FullofYears campus, and today’s entry is fulminate. (Please curb your vocabulary-loving enthusiasm until you decide whether to become a full-fledged fulminator!) This Latinate expression—from a root loosely arranged around “hurling lightning”—can add rhetorical flourish to ordinary words that describe expressed anger or condemnation—e.g., denounceMORE...
(Every so often I read something that’s impossible to summarize in a 300-word blog like this. Today’s entry solves that dilemma—sortof—by offering you my recommendation about a book that might be helpful (and hopeful) for your possible worries about global warming. I’m working my way through the final pages of a book that attracted me while I was roaming our library’s New Books shelf. The titleMORE...
Increasing portions of the world’s population are today living in ash-infused rubble. Forest fires, wars and natural calamities have consumed their homes, their possessions, their occupations and their health. The ashes remind them how futile life may be—how long it will be for the debris to be removed and hopeful living to re-emerge. “Living in the ashes” might describe how people anywhere—butMORE...
BOB SITZE has filled the many years of his lifework in diverse settings around the United States. His calling has included careers as a teacher/principal, church musician, writer/author, denominational executive staff member and meat worker. Bob lives in Wheaton, IL.