Tag: Being

  • Being Is The Way (Greater Things)

    Being Is The Way (Greater Things)

    In this message, I challenge us to consider that the greater things that are in us are easier done than said. All of life is waiting for us to be who we can be. Erich Fromm, social psychologist and author of To Have or To Be said: Our capacity to choose changes constantly with our…

  • A Box as Big as the Universe

    A Box as Big as the Universe

    My uncle, Vernon Kitabu Turner, can’t be put in a box. And it is time that I thank God for him. He just loves God and has ceaselessly sought to understand the Spirit that he has witnessed as active his entire life by any means necessary. When I was younger, people told me that I…

  • The New Rule of L.A.W. – Love Always Wins

    The New Rule of L.A.W. – Love Always Wins

    For months, I have been trying to make sense of this awareness in my soul that there was something calling me forward no matter how painful 2020 has been. However, I couldn’t figure out how to articulate it until I was listening to a Matisyahu song called One Day. Then it hit me that I…

  • If I Die Before I Wake – A Reflection on the Regal Nature of Chadwick Boseman

    If I Die Before I Wake – A Reflection on the Regal Nature of Chadwick Boseman

    I can’t stop thinking about Chadwick Boseman. He’s been on my mind so much that I caught myself shaking my head in the gym on the edge of tears. Now if you know me, you know that this isn’t characteristic of me. So, I had to examine why I was taking this so hard. Even…

  • Ending Racism: How to Change the World in One Generation

    Ending Racism: How to Change the World in One Generation

    The other morning I was feeling the weight of trying to articulate possibilities in the face of polarities. I prayed for some guidance on how to reimagine some of the conversations we’re having on race. Next thing you know, I get this email from my new friend Justin Michael Williams inviting me to preview an…

  • The Story You Refuse to Hear May Be Your Own

    In a recent sermon called, The Search for the present Christ, I challenged my community to reflect on the image of Afro-Cuban artist, Harmonia Rosale’s work, I Exist, which features a black woman on the Cross. I asked them to do this not because I was trying to be provocative in the shock value sense,…

  • Being With God

    Being With God

    God is the ground of being, being-itself; who concerns us ultimately. Thus, God is our ultimate concern. — Paul Tillich I’ll be honest with you and say that on a weekly if not daily basis, I find myself wondering what good I am doing as a pastor. It’s not that I don’t appreciate what I do or the people with…

  • Where Love Abides

    Where Love Abides

    How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? – 1 John 3:17 This is a post that of myself I don’t want to write. In fact, I don’t even know what I am about to say. What I know is that I…

  • Those Who Lose Their Lives…

    Those Who Lose Their Lives…

    Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me…

  • Mind’s Best Friend

    Mind’s Best Friend

    I believe that if you look deeply enough, you will find that almost every industry is ultimately in the distraction and manipulation business.  I’m not saying this with any judgment. I’m just making an observation. If you disagree, I invite you to simply consider how the internet is set up so that once you log…