Just finished Brian Mclaren's book, Finding our way again. A book on rediscovering ancient spiritual practices. Here are a few thoughts of his I enjoyed.

“Those who reject religion are often rejecting a certain arid system of belief, or if not that, a set of trivial taboos or rules or rituals that have lost meaning for them-each the thin residue of a lost way of life.” p. 4

“I wonder what would happen if people today were to rediscover their religions in this light. Moreover, I wonder what would happen if we were willing to risk everything so that people could be not just indoctrinated and informed by dogmatic abstractions and ritual observance, but formed and transformed by spiritual practices, people who learn a way of life so they can move together in movements of peace, shalom, salaam?” p. 38

“My concern is that by making heaven after this life the destination of our way, we are spiritually forming people who run away from fire, disease, and the violence of our world... My concern is that Jesus was more like a firefighter or doctor or social worker who walks boldly into the danger in order to try to stop it. If a healed and healthy earth is your destination, the way to that goal promotes involvement, engagement, risk, and participation. If the earth is a lost cause to you, then you will abandon this life and world for the afterlife. You will choose the way of withdrawal, isolation, self-protection, and self-distancing. By choosing one destination, you follow the way of incarnation and transformation; by choosing the other destination, you choose evacuation and abdication. Very different destinations, very different ways to them.” p. 71

“And maybe imagining that happening is a lot like having faith; in fact, maybe that song was John Lennon’s way of sayng, beautiful even if imprecisely, ‘May your kingdom come, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’ And maybe the ancient way is about letting that harmony spread in and through our lives.” p. 202