Spirituality

Rebranding a Life: Spirituality and Chronic Illness

/ Elizabeth Gaucher / 5 Comments

I contributed an essay to the collection, A Spiritual Life, and the advance reviews confirm that the entire book delivers on its promise of engaging a range of meaningful and personal perspectives on spirituality.  What does it mean to individuals to live “a spiritual life”? 

Writing my essay was a very personal process of articulating the experiences I had after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis twelve years ago.  I spent a long time in a state of “unreadiness” to disclose my condition, much of that stemming from fear of the unknown.  My spiritual journey propelled me into a braver, stronger, richer place as a child of God.  Perhaps one or more of these essays will do the same for you!

I hope you will read the reviewers’ comments below and consider pre-ordering the book for yourself or someone you love.  Publication will be in late April 2011.

A Spiritual Life: Perspectives from Poets, Prophets, and Preachers (Westminster John Knox Press), will be published in early 2011.

“Don’t look for a traditional approach to faith or a unified voice in this diverse collection. You can, however, count on graceful prose and an honest, reflective search–and that, I found, was enough to make my own pilgrimage seem more authentic and less lonely.”
Philip Yancey, author of What Good Is God? and Prayer: Does It Make a Difference?

“In A Spiritual Life, Allan Hugh Cole, Jr. has assembled an impressive group of twenty-four “poets, prophets, and preachers” to write about that elusive thing called their spiritual life. What emerges is not a tight and tidy definition of the spiritual life but a glorious topographic collage of the ways in which people infuse their lives with God. These two dozen compelling writers expand not only our notion of the depth and breadth of the spiritual life, but maybe even our understanding of God.”
Sybil MacBeth, author of Praying in Color: Drawing a New Path to God

“Too often Americans think of “spirituality” and “the spiritual life” in ways disconnected from the quotidian challenges of our daily lives. This rich collection offers a powerful and poignant counterwitness, displaying the complexities of engaging God in the midst of the ordinary. You will be stimulated, comforted, and challenged by these wonderfully gifted writers.
L. Gregory Jones, Duke University, author of Embodying Forgiveness

“A spiritual banquet, prepared by some of America’s finest writers and thinkers. If you’re looking for a fresh wind to blow through your life of faith, look no further than this gem of a book.”
Philip Gulley, author of If Grace Is True and the Harmony novels

“These meaty essays, generously spiced with personal stories, provide valuable food for thought about ministry, preaching and everyday life in Christ. What a rich feast! Savor this book.”
Lynne M. Baab, author of Sabbath Keeping and Friending: Real Relationships in a Virtual World

“One of the great gifts of my work is that I often get to ask the question of friends and folks I’ve only just met, “What is God up to in your life?” There are few things I’d rather do than listen to an honest response to that question. Here is a book full of responses by folks who write both honestly and well. Like so many of the folks I’ve listened to face-to-face, these authors give me hope that the Spirit is stirring to bring new life, even in the most unexpected of places.”
Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, author of New Monasticism and The Wisdom of Stability

Knocking from Inside

/ Elizabeth Gaucher / 1 Comment

“I was banging on the door, then I realized I was knocking from inside.” — Rumi

The Post Secret Project is not just an eye-opener, it can open minds and hearts as well. 

Initiated in 2004 by Frank Warren, it started out as a “creative prank” that invited strangers to “artistically share their deepest secret on a postcard and mail it to (Mr. Warren) anonymously.” One of the key rules to the project is that submissions must be genuine secrets, things that the writer has never shared with anyone else before.

Everyone has secrets.  We may not call them by that name, but even small children do things or have thoughts that they don’t share with others.  I suspect that if you think you don’t have any secrets, you might have several from yourself.  It’s not a bad thing, and it’s not a good thing.  It is just part of the insecurities, fears, passions, and devotions of being human.

This past week I participated in a spirited conversation about God, the Christian Bible, and divine inspiration.  It all began with a CNN Opinion piece entitled, “The Bible Has Some Shocking Family Values.”  It was a very respectful exchange, and yet I was left feeling that a lot of it was posturing and representative of what some people felt they were supposed to say versus what they may really believe.  I remembered the latest Post Secret book on my nightstand, Post Secret:  Confessions on Life, Death, and God.  I flipped through the book, and it was not a minute before I remembered why it came to mind.  Consider these confessions from page ix of the Foreword:

“I am a Southern Baptist Pastor’s Wife.  No one knows that I do not believe in God.”

“I am an editor for a large online atheist newsletter and I believe in GOD!!!”

These secrets are obviously extreme examples of the things people keep hidden from the world, in large measure because they are trying to live up to what — they think — everyone else expects of them.  This book in particular but the entire project overall illustrates a pattern of connecting and disconnecting elements of spirituality and sexuality in human experience, and how people strive to be and do what they think is right but how often that perception is not part of an honest reality.

In fairness to all of us, sometimes “honest reality” is a mess.  I still don’t know that I believe everything needs to be out there.  It may, I just don’t know.  Still, I wonder what the world would be like if we were more willing to put down the script and say, “I have no idea.  I’m working on that, how about you?”

Oh, and P.S…….don’t miss the project’s website, with new secrets posted each Sunday.  My favorite from October 31, 2010, due to it’s Halloween holiday appropriateness:  “I like going on the M&M’s website and writing dirty words on chocolate.”  After all, some secrets are just funny!

Image credit: ABC News