Home > Work > Everything Is Spiritual: Who We Are and What We're Doing Here
1 " I was reading the book of Leviticus and learned that one of its major themes is the importance of sustainably caring for the earth. That’s in the Bible? I then went back to the poem that begins the Bible in the book of Genesis. Yes. It’s there as well. This sacred responsibility to care for the earth. In the Bible, having a healthy and sustainable relationship with the earth is not a cause or political agenda, it’s an obvious and unavoidable fact about human life. Any healthy spiritual vision for life begins with the awareness that everything is connected to everything else, and that begins with us having a healthy connection with the earth. "
― Rob Bell , Everything Is Spiritual: Who We Are and What We're Doing Here
2 " There’s a line in the Bible about the God who is above all and through all and in all. Just one line, but so massive. Above all and through all and in all. "
3 " I saw how the Bible isn’t a book about how to get into heaven, it’s a library of poems and letters and stories about bringing heaven to earth now, about this world becoming more and more the place it should be. There is very, very little in the Bible about what happens when you die. That’s not what the writers were focused on. Their interest, again and again, is on how this world is arranged. "
4 " We’re all endlessly figuring it out because Spirit keeps doing something new. We can fight this, resist this, dig in our heels, wish things were the way they used to be, or we can embrace it. We can choose to see it with fear and frustration, or we can see it as thrilling and invigorating. Organizations can keep trying to relive their glory days, wishing things were like they were when they started. "
5 " God is not a question about what may or may not be up there or above or out there— God is what we’re unquestionably in. "
6 " Sometimes we’ve accepted rules and codes and limits without realizing it. "
7 " Spirit often exposes the assumptions we’ve been living with that we haven’t been aware of. "
8 " Spirit often reveals the ways in which we have ever so subtly submitted to the belief that this is just how it is. Spirit refuses to accept that this is just how it is, because spirit is inherently creative. "
9 " Strange, how the writer doesn’t explain why Abraham leaves other than saying he hears a divine voice. Something intimate and infinite is calling to him, and he listens. "
10 " the one about Abraham leaving, is revolutionary. It’s a step forward in human consciousness. You can step out of the cycle? You can leave? And head into the unknown? You can step into something that hasn’t happened yet, that doesn’t exist yet? "
11 " He heard something? That’s the best the writer can do? That’s so vague. Ambiguous. Fuzzy. Exactly. Sometimes the most powerful truths in a story are the ones that are never explicitly stated. "
12 " because everything is connected to everything else, and the more we know about who and where we come from, the more we know about where we’re headed. "
13 " I read more of the prophets, these poets and sages who spoke all kinds of truth to power. Another of the ways they explained why they’d been taken into exile was because there was a widening gap between rich and poor in their society, and whenever that happens, the entire system is in danger of imploding. Again and again prophets like Amos announce that if more and more wealth ends up in fewer and fewer hands everybody will suffer. How had I missed this? "
14 " When I look far enough inside of you, I’ll find me. When I look far enough inside me, I’ll find you. "
15 " If the only answer ever to anything is You really need to do more and try harder your heart will eventually wear out. Along with your body. And your soul. "
16 " We create these identities around our roles and titles and job descriptions and achievements. They give our lives shape and form and meaning and definition. Ever so gradually over time our understanding of ourselves gets shaped by what we do and what we’ve done. We cling, we grasp, we hold tightly to these identities. "
17 " Soul doesn’t care what it is or what it should be called. Soul just wants to enter into it. And feel it. And absorb it. And experience it. Soul wants to participate. "
18 " was being set free from the idea that there was ever any point to this other than full-bodied participation in the moment we’re in. There’s a story in the Bible where Moses asks God what God’s name is, and God answers I AM. "
19 " It’s like I’m figuring it out, but as soon as I do, something shifts, and we get to figure it out all over again. I resist this endless figuring it all out, but over time, it starts to work a kind of magic on me. "
20 " I realize I’ve been living for years with the assumption that at some point you arrive. You get it all nailed down. You sort it all out. And then from there you get on with it. "
