Religion without the Spirit, without authentic spirituality, basically becomes a way to give divine sanction/endorsement/legitimization to our biases and prejudices and it becomes a way to maintain the status quo. It also becomes a means of exerting control over...
You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.
Part of the greatest commandment Christ gave to his disciples is to "love your neighbor." Not control your neighbor.Not mock your neighbor.Not shame your neighbor.Not dehumanize your neighbor.Not defeat your neighbor. Love your neighbor.
One thing is clear to me: the temptation of power is greater when intimacy is a threat. Much Christian leadership is exercised by people who do not know how to develop healthy, intimate relationships and have opted for power and control instead.
Conflict is a natural part of being in a community. It cannot be avoided or controlled by anyone, but it can be an agent of change. When you approach conflict from a defensive posture, it can escalate the situation to where a third party is needed to help resolve the...
One lesson that we Christians have not learned in the last 2,000+ years is that Jesus had no political control over the Roman Empire and he still changed the entire world. We keep trying to change the world the way the Roman Empire did, instead of the way Jesus did.
Our Christian religion is being co-opted for the sake of power and control over our culture. Where Jesus chose to save us by his grace and mercy, Christianity is being used to coerce and control people into conformity. This is what it looks like to take Christ's name...
Instead of worrying about what you cannot control, shift your energy to what you can create.
Peace requires us to surrender our illusions of control.
There is a realm of time where the goal is not to have but to be, not to own but to give, not to control but to share, not to subdue but to be in accord. Life goes wrong when the control of space, the acquisition of things of space, becomes our sole concern. from The...