Doug Harrison

Oil Spill: How much should I be worried about whether God will forgive me?

Published April 4, 2012 by Doug Harrison

In my church we most often confirm people on Easter Sunday. It was the tradition in the area I lived at that time to have a special service on the Tuesday before Easter when members of individual congregations would come to pick up oils blessed by the Bishop to bring back to their individual congregations. I eagerly volunteered and was selected to go and represent our congregation to get the oils. This particular service had a lot of meaning for me and I had been looking forward to actually participating in it for days.

When it came to the big day, I slept through it. I forgot it entirely.

"Disappointed with God"

Disappointment with God: We are in over our heads.

Published March 31, 2012 by Doug Harrison

Disappointment with God: We are in over our heads.

I have come to believe that there can be no mature spiritual life without experiencing disappointment with God. When I was younger I would have cringed at the idea because so much of my faith hinged on my sincerity and certainty of my own convictions. Today my faith requires no less sincerity, but it does ask me to move beyond my own convictions to a place where I can be sure of what I hope for and certain of what I can not see.

"Disappointed with God"

St. Benedict goes to Burning Man.

Published February 20, 2012 by Doug Harrison

What do Benedictines have to do with Burning Man?. Well, not much. It is a Ven diagram with very little overlap ( I think I’ll wear my leopard skin habit with the blinky hood? #notsomuch). But there is a reason I live happily wedged between these two very self-conscious groups of trouble makers. And as we tip-toe across these last few hours of ordinary time and into a new season (meaning different things to each community) I have been compelled to really reflect on what is happening in my life because I how I live with these people and all of their, well, religious practices.

The Burner life Tohu-Bohu

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How to be a Valentine: A Note on Martyrdom.

Published February 14, 2012 by Doug Harrison

Today is a feast, a gift and remembrance, of an occasion I have yet see Hallmark really nail with one of its watercolored limericks: there once was a man so in love with God that he was beheaded for performing marriages in opposition to war. In defense of hallmark, that is a very hard picture to paint with water colors…

In the third century, Emperor Claudius had declared marriage illegal in order to encourage more young men to volunteer to be soldiers. Valentine, a celibate priest, opposed both the aggressive violence of the empire as well as the notion that the state alone held the reins of marriage. The priest knew how central marriage is to the life of the Church and couldn’t stop marrying people just because Claudius had other plans.

Tohu-Bohu

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This is How I Am Pro-Life. Now may I please have that phrase back?

Published February 8, 2012 by Doug Harrison

I hope the way I live with children celebrates their lives.
I hope men and women keep loving and enjoying each other and having more kids.
I hope those kids know I love them even before conception.
I hope I create community so no one in my life feels like a ‘single’ parent.
I hope I honor my father’s memory and love him after death.
I hope the women in my life know I think their breasts can be life giving miracles as well as something others desire.
I hope I help women love their own breasts and bodies as desirable miracles.

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The Lightbulb Conspiracy: Epiphany reminds us to go looking for God in all the wrong places

Published January 6, 2012 by Doug Harrison

Before their were lightbulbs, what would you put over a person’s head in a cartoon to show they had a bright idea or an epiphany? Candles seem like waxy danger. Today is the day we celebrate the day people started to really ‘get’ who Jesus was and it its a little surprising who these folks end up being. Its also surprising who not only didn’t get it, they tried to shut the “Jesus” thing down. On this the day we ccelebrate Epiphany, I think “getting” who these people really were, might also give us a little epiphany about who Jesus is as well.

Tohu-Bohu

Hope is Found Between. December 25

Published December 26, 2011 by Doug Harrison

I am not one to whom hope comes easily, But it does come.

29 Days of Hope

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29 Days of Hope: A place to hold my shaky heart.

Published December 23, 2011 by Doug Harrison

Something happened to me at Roseanne’s birthday party. She can not sit up on her own let alone stand our walk. She does not speak. She can not feed herself and she can only eat soft foods. She is someone who many people see far more quickly as an “it” than a “hello my name is….” Her birthday party is one of those moments I can point back to and say, this is the moment that changed my life.

29 Days of Hope

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29 Days of Hope: A Resident Alien in Roswell Abducts Me.

Published December 23, 2011 by Doug Harrison

I liked going on tour with the college choir. The old music wasn’t much to my liking. I guess I harbored a conviction that the old church songs related to old people, that is was time for new songs

and “relevant” songs only. My sent me on a quest to stay with Don Adams when I got to Roswell New Mexico that would be a shift in my convictions. He gave me permission to believe that trying to prove Christians can be cool might be a less interesting endeavor than to learn to live a little, well, alien to what was relevant.

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4 ways to jumpstart the last minute holiday spirit.

Published December 22, 2011 by Doug Harrison

manhattan solstice 3 (Photo credit: Dave Kliman)

Whew! So that was the longest night of the year. I am not at all unfamiliar with its is like to be stuck in a night that does not seem to want to end. Sometimes the darkness is a habit of thinking that is hard to break.

This far in to the holiday season there are always a few folks who want to be in the spirit of things but just haven’t got there yet.

Well the night is over. The sun returns and I think surprise is an important part of a complete breakfast. So here are a couple ideas to get the ball rolling.

1) Shock yourself: Some gifts you open, some gifts open you…

29 Days of Hope

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Author: Doug Harrison