Saturday, September 23, 2017

Steps 4-11: Cleaning house

Let's review: Only the brokenness of my psyche separates God and my Self.  The Solution to egotism isn’t spiritualized egotism.  Nor is a god of my own making a higher power.  In early 12-stepping, I was unwittingly making those two ...
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Thursday, September 21, 2017

Trust God: New Thoughts on Steps 1-3 of ACA

“Keep coming back.  It works if you work it, so work it, you’re worth it” 

In every 12 step group, after the Our Father is prayed, this phrase closes the meeting.  I love it for how cute it is—I will sound cynical, but overt ...
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Thursday, September 14, 2017

God, Self and Concepts: Which Transcendence Fits?

Ultimately, I want to explain why I remain a Christian.  In order to do that, I need to call out a particular brand of denial: namely the tendency to find blame God when the error is in my heart.  While I’ll end up talking about my own ...
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Thursday, September 7, 2017

There's a hole in the bucket: A "Dear Liza" Letter to Myself and the Church

When I began on a spiritual path, I wrote a letter to Chrysognonus Waddell, the hermit who introduced me to monasticism.  I wanted to tell him I was considering entering a monastery.  I don’t still possess his return letter, but I ...
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