The biggest scandal in religion is this idea that God loves bad people. While the bible tells us that Jesus died for our sins, it doesn’t really explain precisely how that happens. This is why we have at least four theories of the atonement. Modern Christianity is largely locked on the penal/substitution theory. On the surface it makes sense, but the subplot is where many people disconnect. This podcast tries to open a discussion about the atonement and offers a wider, and more inclusive theory based on restoration rather than retribution.

My town has 60,000 people and 150 different denominations or faith traditions. Yours probably has more. In our world of competitive religions, it is increasingly common to disparage or diminish another denomination or religion. In this podcast and post I examine what is behind the exclusivity and why we often confuse the God experience with the means to that experience. A theology is not God but humanity’s attempt to make sense out of an experience that has just as many names as God.

In nearly every arena of life we witness those who are about to engage in action take a moment of pause right before they begin. Athletes and performers alike all find a moment just prior to going on the world’s stage. In this podcast I explore what is contained within this brief moment and precisely what happens when we choke. What is really happening, what is at stake, and what do we miss if we glance over this pause and keep on going? Far more is happening than what is on the surface.

In this final episode I examine that little voice of “push back” that emerges when we start talking about spiritual things. I show you that it’s not uncommon, and despite what the religious world might say, it doesn’t mean you don’t believe. Push back is an inner experience of faith, and I show you how that is so. I also help you to see why the deep life is so vital, so lasting, and the ultimate focus of everything you think you want.

What is spirituality? Is it just a bunch of weird fables and feel good stories that lack any real tangible benefit? Is it a life of rituals and strange tribal language or a small group that asks invasive questions?  In this episode, I describe the spiritual life as the deep life. I also show you exactly how the deep life is absolutely real and much larger than any empirically measurable container. I share what gets us there and what doesn’t along with what we can expect upon arrival at this deep, beautiful, powerful world.

Many people think our world is very shallow. While that may be the case, it may surprise you to learn that people don’t really want to be shallow. In this podcast I begin to show you how to go deeper by exploring the smallest things. In the end, these tiny things are the event horizon for the biggest thing in the universe.

In this second installment of our examination of the Descent, I help define this reality by examining its opposite: the Ascent. This is not about picking one or the other since both are vital to life. However, we are taught from a young age that ascending is the path to a better life; work harder, more output, more effort, more knowledge, more stuff, and so it goes. After years of ascending, modern people are asking if there is anything more. They wonder where to find something meaningful, lasting and beautiful. This realization is our first entrance into the counterintuitive downward path.

When it comes to the deeper aspects of life and ultimate reality, people are not shallow or stupid. We are simply oblivious to what is behind, and in and through all things. In this post and podcast, I begin a new series that will help us understand why we need to be intentional about going deeper into our lives. Most of our lives are spent clinging and ascending in order to possess the things we think we want. This series will prove that in order to obtain what we really want, the path is always a descent.

The bible evokes strong reactions in people. Some roll their eyes and are amazed that any modern person could believe any of it, while others will defend every word in a literal interpretation.  In this podcast and post, I show how both of these reactions to sacred texts are errors that truncate our spiritual growth and progress as a people. The path to the new world is not to throw out old ideas about God, but to widen our understanding of them by learning them in new ways. This allows us to avoid the error on either side.

The typical light switch is binary, it’s on or off. The Dimmer Switch has many versions of on.  When it comes to Truth or Ultimate Reality, most of us approach life with a binary switch. We see others in dualities. Ultimate Truth resolves the tension between seemingly opposites. The path to discovering this is incremental widening of our truth system (dimmer switch) through humility, not by holding tenaciously to outdated binary assumptions through certainty.