I have recently begun reading “A Pocket Book of Power” by Ralph Spaulding Cushman and Robert Earl Cushman. It is a book that has compelled me to question my own morality in the decisions I make. Even more profoundly, in the decisions I avoid or never make at all.

Too often I'm told, “It’s not my problem. It’s not my fight. It’s always been that way.” And sometimes I feel the pull to agree. Sometimes I want to ask, What’s even the point? I leave the following for another day but, I do believe in the Creator and in Yeshua.

So I’ll leave you with today’s inspiration. A quote from the book, by Bishop James M. Thoburn (1836–1922), titled:

THE GLARING DENIAL

“The great, glaring denial of faith and duty which stands out before the world today, so clearly that it cannot be concealed, is the refusal of those who bear the name of Christ to execute the great commission which their Master has given them.”

All my life, one message from the Church has troubled me. It is the notion of Divine Retribution.
“Do this or God will smite you where you stand.”

Do not misunderstand me, ceremony and ritual have their place in every faith and denomination. They are meaningful. They are beautiful. But they are not a substitute for the work we are here to complete. Faith is not meant to be confined to self-sacrifice, repetition, or begging for forgiveness every weekend.

Yeshua spoke uncomfortable truths.
Morality was His path.

The laws of man can deceive us, for they are shaped by flawed human interpretation. I am learning to look deeper. I want to seek the moral truth of a situation rather than merely its legal or cultural framing. We are now witnessing many people begin to speak their own truths and voice their moral convictions. This, too, is a path toward understanding, toward becoming versions of ourselves that can live in harmony with one another. This is what I believe Yeshua modeled.

So I say, be more than the ritual of your faith.
Be the practice those rituals are meant to remind us of in daily life.

Silence. Avoidance. The denial that a problem even exists. These are often justified as ways to “keep the peace” or avoid “drama.” But the conversations we avoid are often the ones of greatest importance. They live in the deeper regions of life, our shadows, and it is only by entering them that we bring ourselves into the light.

Ritual is not a substitute for the uncomfortable conversations to be had or the real work to be done. 

To walk the walk is to become more than we are comfortable being. It is something we follow through on when we are naturally called to answer. 

Even for those without faith, instinct leads us toward the same truth.
Our inner energies ask to be acknowledged, aligned, and expressed in harmony.

The call is universal.
The work is real.
And it begins within.

-Dan