As Pastor Neil heads into retirement in June,
Kenny and Pastor Neil will examine his journey that brought him to the present and his gems of optimism for the road ahead.
Questions of the week:
-"You speak about stepping away from the noise and the chance to speak... truth as it comes to you, how do you keep yourself open to that?"
-"[What about ] those times when there has been that blockage that has not allowed you to be present, what are techniques you've used?
-"What is it to live the life of the spirit? What does that entail?"
-"Are there techniques that you used to tap into the spirit within you?"
-"How do you keep yourself in tune with the spirit now that you are going to retire?"
Gems of the week:
-"When I had turned 40, I had not achieved any of my goals, I wasn't a rock and roll star or top tier academic or any of those things. I basically felt like my life was over, all achievement side of my life was over. It has been a transcendent gift to have had this opportunity in my 60s to lead...it's just been a redemption for me."
-"...my father and grandfather are paying attention saying "look man whatever you did or didn't accomplish in Sunnyside, you had the chance to... say what you feel, what you believe, and express that spirit you have been given."
-"All it's really about is showing up. It's such a huge part of life. Go on and confront it, show up. At least you stepped in the ring."
-"First thing is conscience. Your conscience is the... spirit inside. We all hear that voice. We get adept at ignoring it. The goal is to live by conscience alone. That is an act of faith. I would also say that you will find as you begin to focus more on...how you interact the world, you're not going to be kind all the time. The goal is to be morally consistent. All those things are about opening us up..."
-"God enters the broken heart. Only the broken heart can open wide enough to let God in. We have to become willing to allow ourselves to be broken-hearted."
-"God resides in our subconscious. The subconscious, at some certain point, touches the divine. What we want to do go a little past that so that we are be in touch with what William James calls the further shore...on the further shore, there is something more. Being in touch with that something more is the work of a lifetime."
-"Doing that is changing the way that we experience the world in our selves so we're not letting things getting filtered through our preconceptions & biases & all the things we do or don't know."
-"We forget how easy it is to connect with the... spirit. We assume it's going to be hard but God is there all the time, reaching out and trying to connect with us. Everybody has it in them. You know when they're doing right and doing wrong. Every time we do it right, our heart opens up a little wider."
-"What I envision [when I retire] ...is another new life. It's kind of poetic that it starts at the beginning of a decade. I intend to do the other side of the spiritual-
spend some time by myself...Doing stuff without any pressure of deadline or production..."
-"The other side of the spiritual life is being in the community and being of service
in a truly caring way and understanding all the implications of that. The other side is self-development."
-"[Karl] Marx envisioned a society where everybody would have the opportunity to develop their gifts freely. What a vision."
-"Moral consistency is when you apply the same standard of ethics to yourself and to others."
Honorable Mentions:
- Desmond Margetson!
Above is a NY Times piece about Desmond Margetson, Pastor Neil's pops.
