Micah Podcast: The Heart Of The Matter

We survived an ice storm. But now we have ice all over the place. What does a frozen landscape have to do with our faith? Can it help our practice?

So, there are all kinds of beards.  Some people like them, some don't.  What's in a beard? (other than perhaps a small creature)

We have another guest! Mark Plesent, theatre guru, is with us to explore the very interesting similarities between the practice of theatre and the practice of spirituality.

Glasses are a great thing. We can see! But are our fixes for problems ever too much? Do they distract us from God?

Today we have a special guest join us for our podcast, Rev. Steve Peterson, Assistant to the Bishop of the NW MN ELCA Synod (see if you can rearrange the letters to spell 'Jesus'!). We are excited to have him join us and we had fun reflecting on the activity that Steve does a lot: wander around!

Happy New Year! Tonight it might be very late before your head hits the pillow, but your pillow is very important to you. We use pillows a lot, they get in the way like our habits but also they give us rest...

One song, so many meanings... This truth brings to light the question of what should the focus of our spiritual life be: God, or all things Satanic - even when we do the latter to supposedly try to get rid of Satan?

We mark things. We mark time, we mark boards, we mark our books. These marks are a way of organizing reality, of keeping track of where we are in time and space. This is both necessary and an obstacle to our relationship with God.

Most people have an use toothbrushes. Their use is a practice. But of and for what? Are we just keeping decay at bay? Or are we doing something that's really good for us. Or a bit of both perhaps.

The future lies before us like an open, slightly blurry road. What lies ahead, we wonder? We are fearful of what we don't know and can't control. We spend billions to predict, project, and parse what the future might bring. Where's God in all of this?

Well, we finally (finish) voting tomorrow. Religion and politics, hmmm. What does any of this have to do with spirituality?

We've been building a building all summer and are now ready to begin reflecting on that spiritual journey.

While I was trying to load this podcast, I lost it! Just kidding. We lose things all the time. What's up with that? How is this a great metaphor for the spiritual life and our life as human beings?

We all get sick. It's a drag. And our kids get sick, that's really no fun. What's this illness all about? How might we respond from a spiritual perspective?

How do you find water 300 feet underground? You can't see it, there aren't any directions, you can't control the outcome of your search. Thus we resort to the mysterious. This is a great issue to see how God talks to us.

Cell phones are now a normal fixture of our lives. They even take precedence over our 'live' conversations. What are the spiritual consequences of that? Are they our idols? Are we addicted to them?

We did this podcast in the afternoon and we're a bit, hmmm, off our game so to speak. But perhaps we were just thrown by the lustful thoughts related to spending our tax returns! Ceaser reaches out and distracts us big-time!

After winter, things are a mess. So, we clean up! What a great analogy for the spiritual life: the uncluttering of our minds.

We teach our kids lots of stuff, even things about capitalism. All of these processes are valuable in that they teach us how to function in society, but they also create our worlds and limit our view of reality. Perhaps the spiritual life is all about broadening our view, un-socializing us!

Today our podcast is late (actually we were late last week too). Being late, or not, is a big deal in our society. Maybe you are an early person, or a late person. What's up with that? Does God care one way or the other? Do we get points in heaven for being on time?