Trying Something New...
A referral to some Faith Life learning... something to study. (050826)
Dear Fellow Hikers,
As I continue to settle into my new employment status of “A Retired Person Traveling The Elderhood Trail Section of His Life Hike”, I also am paying attention to a mission of trying to Find My Stride. I spend a fair amount of time focusing on my Personal Faith Life. One of my daily Faith Practices is to learn more about my relationship with God through Study. Today I came across an online resource (I subscribe to numerous online resources and daily emails with faith based messages) that I found very interesting and decided to dig into it a bit. As I went further down that path I discovered more and more information that interested me, and that discovery is what lead me to an idea to Try Something New.
Although most of my writings share my personal learning/study experiences, those experiences are usually presented casually and passively. Today I’m going to try and share my learning experience more… dare I say it… academically. I enjoy pondering my personal faith life by myself. But I also gain a lot from working through the process with others. So I’ve decided to provide you with some of the same resources I’ve been studying this morning, and give you the opportunity to give them a look as well.
*Note: I’m about to reference a resource that I read quite often. I sometimes agree with it, sometimes disagree with it, often I’m bored with it, and often I don’t even bother opening it. If you wanted to label its political affiliation, it would be easy to do so. All these statements can be said about all of the resources I receive and study in some way or another. Please, if you spend some time considering the content, I hope you can do so with the purpose of trying to learn something about your own personal faith life. I also want you to know that this resource is in my top five or so, that has had a very positive impact helping me better understand my faith life… especially when studied along side additional resources… and especially when the other resources offer opposing perspectives.
The email I received this morning was from The Center for Action and Contemplation. My first step in this study was to watch a 10 minute video, What is the Good News for Our Fractured World? (The First Video by Dr. James Finley)… followed by my downloading of the transcript, printing it, reading it, and marking it up with pencil in hand. (I do all of my handwriting with a Ticonderoga Black #2 pencil with an additional eraser stuck on it.) It was about then, that I felt inspired to make this post.
I’ve intentionally not shared anything about the message content, nor my opinions on the perspectives shared. But I do ask you to give it a look, and if you are so inclined, study it a bit, and let me know if my Try Something New has any value to occasionally show up in these occasional letters.
With Care, Dan.
P.S. Another Try Something New… I wrote this post in one sitting today rather than my usual several day process. I gave it a brief look for typos and some content flow… but without much editing or any real time letting it sit… nor having my editor (Cam, she still has a day job) proof it. Simply another exercise in finding my new trail stride!