Ordination Sermon and Guided Meditation

Each of us has our own spiritual language
for connecting with the divine. 
Mine is painting.

I know Spirit not through words or storyline,
but in how I feel when music is playing inside me
and my paintbrush is marking its pulse. 

In 1972 I was a ten-year-old boy growing up in Trenton, Michigan in a family that was Southern Baptist on both sides—all the way back to the Flood.

Dreams are more important to me than air. Without them I feel flat, dead.

Herein lays my dilemma. In order to reap the benefits of my dream images, I must record them on a daily basis. This requires discipline.

As a clinical psychologist skilled in neuropsychology, I learned years ago that the two halves of the cerebral cortex function quite differently. It is as if there are two brains constantly being coordinated by a thick band of nerve fibers connecting them.

As I experienced the wild frenzy of media coverage and discussion around this year’s powerful and important election, I was struck by how important it is to walk carefully and truthfully as an Interfaith Minister.

The Upanishads, one of Hinduism's most sacred texts, reaches through the mists of time with its gleanings about the nature of existence and the Oneness of All. The following selections only hint at the treasures to be gleaned from a fuller sampling.

"Look forward to your transition.
It’s the first time you will experience unconditional love.
There will be all peace and love, and all the nightmares and the
    turmoil you went through in your life will be like nothing.