Time challenged yet optimistic...

After receiving a gentle nudge from one of my colleagues to "remember to blog" I realized it has been some days since I've written - mostly the regular kind of days but sprinkled with visits to my mother's bedside, the funeral of a friend's elderly father, a home football game and some pastoral work in the city. The school year clips along with unbelievable speed. We are already helping international students shop for return tickets for their long Christmas break.

I subscribe to a little known magazine called Ode - the subtitle proclaims it to be for "intelligent optimists." At least I fill one of those requirements: I've always been optimistic about things! Whenever I stand in front of our students I cannot help but wonder how they will face the challenges of life. Their intelligence and their savvy give me solace but there are mean spirited people in this world as well that match them step for step in those characteristics. In this latest issue, Karen Armstrong talks about why God is still a good idea. In her interview she says: "Religion is really an art form and a struggle to find value and meaning amid the ghastly tragedy of human life." A struggle I can understand but a form of art is not a way I've thought of religion before. My generation was basically handed religion to us in rather black and white terms....take it or leave it was pretty much our menu of options. That simply doesn't seem to make sense to me when it comes to passing on that faith to today's children. They are cleverer, more thoughtful and more analytical. They need more imagination when it comes to making big decisions in life and religion is one of those. Armstrong's notion of "an art form" is something that could engage them because it splashes colors of possibility on a life's canvas and graceful movement into the ongoing dance of life. Art forces us to reach deep inside and welcome whatever we find there. This is a big difference from the way we approached religion: either you believe or you....well, you know the rest. I love her way of suggesting that faith is a core human experience which, when absent, makes us more vulnerable to baser appetites and tendencies. I know some will scoff at her notion that God is an "idea" but this is not the place to tackle that enormous subject....