Dreams Unlocked

The hermitage I stayed in. I have said before that the mentors to my generation of Christian leaders would include the following: Richard Foster, Leslie Newbign, Dallas Willard, Eugene Peterson, Mirozlov Volf and Henri Nouwen. The writing of these men have been hugely formative in my spiritual life and in the life of my ministry. I just finished WIllard's book "The Great Omission". It is a collection of past essays he has written on the lack of discipleship in contemporary Christianity. It is a great book. He makes several references to the necessity for solitude and silence in the life of Christian, and in the life of leaders. Since, I fall into both categories - Christian and leader, I paid attention. And I tried it out. Last Friday, I checked into a hermitage at a local Catholic retreat center. A hermitage is a small living space set aside for monastics who have chosen to live a life of solitude from the rest of society. Other terms include Poustina or Ashram. The herm...

This is an extension of a tweet I posted earlier today. This is the original tweet: Most "busyness" in today's world is based on pride, low self-esteem, fear and lack of faith. Most of it rarely produces anything of value. This is a paraphrase and summary of some things I had been reading by Dallas Willard. It is also something I have been noticing been played out in my community. We lived in downtown Vancouver for 7 years. The downtown of any major city tends to be busy and move fast. People's inner worlds tended to synchronize with this external reality. We now live in the suburbs of Vancouver. We live on the edge of a forest. My old home office was on the 26th floor and overlooked the helter skelter movements of downtown Vancouver. My current office is in our town-home basement and I have a view of the forest - the only action I see is the occasional glare from the neighborhood cat. Where we now live is quite peaceful, quiet and serene. But, strangely the lives of...