Dear friends,

I don’t know about y’all, but Bill and I had quite a bit of fun teaching Sunday. Certainly talking about baseball on this particular day was made so much sweeter by the Astros’ win that will send them to the World Series. But I hope what you really got was the connection between baseball and our spiritual lives. To be clear, I do not think God has a favorite team, nor do I think God impacts the outcome of the game no matter how hard we pray or how strongly we believe. I do, however, think the interplay between the ball, the players, and the fans is a great metaphor for the connection between contemplation and action. When our beliefs are accompanied by compassionate action, it is as magical as watching how creativity is sparked on the baseball field. The ball is like sacred mystery; it wants to move through us and wants us to be an active participant in its unfolding. My hope is the more we can imagine a friendly universe, as Einstein said, the more we can do compassionate action, then the arc of the universe will indeed bend toward justice. This will not happen on its own, though. It requires us to look deeply, grapple with hard stuff, and make adjustments where they are needed. Just as baseball can’t happen without the movement of the ball, growth cannot happen without action. I hope you enjoy reading through the text and slides attached below.

In addition, click the below to access the link Bill shared about how religion has changed over the last 60+ years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiDLNEFZyvc

Thanks for spending part of your week with us!

Much love, Bill & Holly

To download a text of the talk, click here

To view or download the presentation slides, click here.

To listen to or download the audio recording of the talk, use the player below.