Finding Peace: Embracing Life from the Divine Center

"Part of what's happening in our day because we have largely lost the language to talk about The Human Condition, particularly spiritual and moral language in robust psychologically realistic ways, is that increasingly we're coming to have only two categories to talk about our lives: either I'm experiencing Bliss, positive psychology stuff that's great, or if I'm not experiencing that then I must have an emotional illness because we have kind of a Poverty of language for discussing the Human Condition in other ways." [00:02:58]

"Life presents itself to us as a series of problems. I was coming out here to tape this and the toilet overflowed and I did it to myself. I knew that was a danger. I'd been plunging, the water was too high. Oh man, that's so frustrating. It's not actually an emotional illness problem, it's just life." [00:03:57]

"Thomas Kelly was very, very bright, born into a Quaker family, decided when he was in college, 'I will make my life a miracle,' and he about killed himself trying to do that. He was a classic overachiever. When he was getting his second PhD, this from Harvard University, and by the way, if you find yourself getting your second PhD from Harvard, you might be an overachiever." [00:05:20]

"He suffered from a memory lapse and failed, and this triggered a kind of a breakdown in him, which sometimes becomes kind of a breakthrough in his life, and he found God in a deep and remarkable way, found another way of doing life, and he began to write about this because it helped him think and experience it." [00:06:00]

"Deep within us there is a holy place, an inner sanctuary of the Soul, a Divine Center. You might know in the Old Testament there was the temple that was a picture of God dwelling on Earth. That's mainly a picture of God dwelling within us, and at the core of it is the holy of holies, and that's a picture of what lies at the center of your soul." [00:07:55]

"There is a way of ordering our mental life on more than one level at once. On one level we may be thinking, discussing, seeing, calculating, meeting all the demands of external Affairs, but deep within, behind the scenes, at a profounder level, we may also be in prayer and adoration, song and worship, and a gentle receptiveness to Divine breathings." [00:09:01]

"Begin now as you hear these words, as you sit in your chair, whatever you're doing right now, to offer your whole self utterly and in joyful abandon, in quiet glad surrender to him who is within, in secret words of Praise, turn in Humble Wonder to the light, faint though it may be." [00:09:35]

"Being fully present to God within actually enables me to be most fully present to the world and other people, without walk and talk and work and laugh with your friends, but behind the scenes keep up the life of simple prayer in inward worship. Let inward prayer be your last act before you fall asleep and the first act when you awake." [00:10:10]

"This is high functioning, not high functioning anxiety, but high functioning life in the spirit. So right now, select a phrase that you can take with you all day long that helps you to return to the Divine Center, to the Inner Light, to the slumbering Christ Within. Maybe 'your will be done' or maybe 'dearest friend' or maybe 'peace be still' or maybe 'my shepherd.'" [00:10:41]

"Pick a phrase that has Beauty to you, that through which God speaks to you, and let that be the heartbeat of your day. See how many times today, as you're driving, as you're at work, when you are plunging the overflowing toilet, whatever it is that you are doing, that enables you to come back to the holy of holies." [00:11:13]

"Whatever's going on in your outer life, whatever is going on in your body, whatever is going on in your emotions, I promise there is a Divine Center and you can find him there. This is my story." [00:11:34]

"Everybody has a story and everybody's story matters. We want to know about your story, whether it's a story of coming to Faith or a story of spiritual growth, whatever it is, we're here for you." [00:12:03]