Becoming an agent of holy grace.

Many people who believe in God - a Higher Power, however named - including people who are loving, kind, diligent and conscientious - seem to discount what I see as their roles as agents of holy grace and to believe that God has complete responsibility for what happens in the world, down to the events and their outcomes of individual humans' lives.

There is, of course, much in Life that is beyond even collective human control.  Yet, like cells in the body of Life, each of us has a purpose which we live out through our moment-to-moment choices. 

There is a Sufi story, the essence of which is that God sent each of us to do the best we can see to do to care for each other: to be agents of divine grace.

When one accepts this holy agency, particularly publicly, it becomes hard to deny or diminish.  Indeed, I believe that people who accept this spiritual agency - to which no organized religion is necessary - immediately see opportunities to represent love and grace everywhere.

More, this holy agency is its own reward, for it brings great motivation, peace, comfort, and joy.

Try it!  You'll like it!

Sustaining hope

At a recent Quaker gathering, I was reminded of a saying attributed to Mother Teresa: "We are not called to be successful.  We are called to be faithful."  When success appears to elude us, even to have eluded us for years, to the point of darkening hope and joy, it seems wise to examine our personal definition of success.

What is success to me - in life, and in this day?  Do I think that I have not succeeded in life, even in this one day of life, unless I have accomplished specific tasks or received some kind of recognition?  If I often fail, this day and in my life's trajectory, is that just a cycle of judgment, even self-righteousness?  ("See how tough I am on myself!")

When we miss the mark, do we tend to give up - or do we learn and grow?

Is it not enough to choose our daily or hourly goals, our moment-to-moment attitude, and our actions - including self care - consciously and in the greatest service of our values and priorities that is given to us to perceive?

Is it not enough to do the best we can see to do?

For those who believe there is a holy Spirit within, does that Spirit require of us more than the best we can see to do?  If not, how can the best we can see to do not be good enough for us to find peace at the end of our day, our year, or our life?

For those who experience being called by a holy Spirit within ourselves to serve Life - humanity, one's family, neighbors or nation, or ecosystems and other living things - as best we can see to do each day, discouragement will come.  But that calling, that agency, that mission, can inoculate us from loss of hope. It can even infuse us with energy, even joy, to pursue the best we can see to do.

August 10, 2025

 Yesterday I attended the funeral mass for a dear friend who was an Episcopalian Bishop and writer of lyrics of hymns of praise. The rituals of worship, gratitude and inspiration at Hartford's Christ Church Cathedral, home to a parish going back to 1762, were ancient, beautiful, and eloquent.

We Quakers have rituals, too.  We don't have processions, vestments, holy communion, smoke, music, or choirs. We sit here in our quiet, different way of worshipping, and seeking a deeper relationship with, and commitment to, that of God within ourselves, each other, and people everywhere.

Ultimately, though, as expressed by a holy person of yet another faith, Baba Ram Dass, "we're all just walking each other home."

 

July 27, 2025

This morning I finished reading The Varieties of Religious Experience. Again. The book – a series of lectures given by William James, a psychologist and physician, in 1902 – is a classic for good reason. I knew of the book long before I read it for the first time last year.  I found it so deep and so powerful that I simply read it again.[*]

The author applies the scientific method rigorously to the study of matters of a spiritual nature in the human psyche, their importance to the individuals who experience them and, through those people, to human society.

The author asserts that human experiences – religious experiences in particular – though unverifiable by ruler, scale, EKG, microscope or camera, are objectively real in that they have real effects on the people who have them and, by the individual and collective actions produced by spiritual experiences, real effects on humanity as a whole.  The fact that one learning of such an experience has never had a similar experience does not entitle a person of intellect and integrity to deny or discredit the described experience.   

James measures the value of such experiences by the degree of benefit to the person who has them, such as joy, discipline, and wholesome qualities and actions; and by the degree of benefit to humanity when such experiences motivate an individual to a higher state of integrity, wisdom and exemplary behavior.  Acknowledging the existence of extremism and psychopathy, James opines that, by and large, religious experiences serve the people who have them – and humanity as a whole.

In the end – spoiler alert – James notes that anyone who at least respects human states of consciousness that are not limited to perceptions and knowledge of the physical world may come to recognize that such higher, spiritual states have a role in the evolution of the better world such states generally envision.

 

* The Penguin Classics edition is much better than the one I read first.

Choosing gratitude over self-pity

It's natural to want things, even to yearn for things; to want more and to want it now. 

It's even natural to feel justified - to feel entitled to have what one desires - and to express those feelings or otherwise to reveal them. 

However, particularly in a relationship, while honesty is important, it is at least as important to convey appreciation for what one has rather than to grumble or pout about what one lacks, let alone to blame one's partner for what one lacks.  

It is important to cultivate patience and perspective.

Imagine living with someone who often communicates wanting more, entitlement to more, and frustration or disappointment in not having more - more of anything, let alone more from you, particularly more attention, affection, effort, sex, or money.  

For the success and happiness of a relationship, it is important not to be the person who experiences such a complaining, entitled, frustrated, or blaming partner - and not to be that partner.  

As many have said, life is difficult.*  Not dwelling on self-pity, frustrations and disappointments, but instead cultivating and conveying, in words and deeds, gratitude for what one has is essential to a good life and joyful relationships.

 

* I recommend The Road Less Traveled, by M. Scott Peck, M.D. 

Questions for pantheists, and people leaning that way.

If God is everywhere and in every thing, am I merely the vessel or manifestation of God, like the sun, or a cloud, or Mount Everest (or a pebble on it), or an indigo bunting, or an iris, or an octopus, or a kitten - important, even amazing, but unaware (as far as we can tell) of the divinity we see in them and entirely indifferent to human affairs?

Having human consciousness - and conscience - and the belief that God is in me as in every other thing, have I no responsibility for representing God to other people?

Have I no responsibility, as a vessel of holiness perforce of my beliefs, for cherishing and taking care of the share of divinity that is my lot to carry?

Have I no responsibility, except by my choice, for treating other people as I'd like to be treated - as vessels of holiness, as manifestations of God?

Am I so wise, talented or powerful that I see no reason, let alone need, to consult the divinity within me as I make my daily choices, big and small?

Reality Check #24 (the boundaries and call of our values)

In a world seemingly full of self-righteousness and negative judgments about others, what are the boundaries of wholesome living - the boundaries and, within those boundaries, the call of duty of the values we claim?

Are we consistently living within those boundaries, answering that call, and fulfilling those duties?