Ponder
Welcome to “Ponder.”
This page is an eclectic mix of thoughts on faith and life. Sometimes the thoughts will be my own but more often will be things I have read that I found interesting and worth pondering. I hope these thoughts will stimulate your own pondering about faith and how it intersects with daily life.
Rev. Mike Orrill
Make Life Holy
The gift of this day announces itself without fanfare; I simply arise to a new morning and its promise. I can, if I choose, touch something deeper than the continuing, outward movement of events. I can move past the ups and downs, the details. Clarissa Estes observes that the ego screams at us to ...read more
Lend Your Voice to Life
Catherine of Siena admonishes us to speak with a million voices because silence kills. Lend your voice to life, she is saying: Grant life with the life you’ve been given. Jesus said, “I came that they may have life . . . (John 10:10). The words are a call to rise up with exuberance ...read more
Revealed as Love
When you pray, you open yourself to the influence of the Power which has revealed itself as Love. The Power which has revealed itself as Love, gives you freedom and independence. Once touched by this Power, which has revealed itself as Love, you are no longer swayed back and forth by the countless opinions, ...read more
Prayer is Not a Last Resort
Prayer requires that we stand in God’s presence with open hands, naked and vulnerable, proclaiming to ourselves and to others that without God we can do nothing. This is difficult in a climate where the predominant counsel is “Do your best and God will do the rest.” When life is divided into “our best’ ...read more
The House of God
As prayer leads us into the house of God and God’s people, so action leads us back into the world to work there for reconciliation, unity and peace. Once we have come to know the truth we want to act truthfully and reveal to the world its true nature. All Christian action – whether ...read more
What is Left Behind?
Many who would not claim the Christian faith, very often find themselves looking at Jesus with great admiration. One of the more thoughtful comments I have read by someone who didn’t call himself a Christian was from H.G. Wells. He wrote: “1900 years later, a historian like myself, who doesn’t even call himself a ...read more
Bring Back Our Troops
“If we’re going to cut programs for children who need milk in the morning, if we’re going to cut programs for seniors who need a sandwich at lunch, if we’re going to cut veterans benefits, then, for God’s sake, let‘s bring back our troops from Afghanistan.” U.S. Representative Walter B. Jones, is from ...read more
Prison Sentence for Parents
An Oregon county judge delivered a clear message to a controversial faith-healing church Mach 8th when two parents were sent to prison for criminally negligent homicide: If you fail to properly care for your children, a similar fate may await you. Judge Steven L Maurer sentenced Marci and Jeffrey Beagley to 16 months in ...read more
Never Say Die
Casey Fulp dreamed of being a Green Beret but was nearly killed in a motorcycle wreck in July 2008. He had a ruptured spleen, damaged lung, torn stomach, broken bones, and brain trauma – and, as a result, was dropped from the Special Forces training program. Today he’s gearing up for a 2,176 mile ...read more
Free Meal
The challenge for the church, says Sara Miles, author of Jesus Freak, is to become a permeable body so that all kinds of people are coming in and going out. “Church is actually a place for people to experience we,” says Miles. She says she needed “to be knocked around in the great rock ...read more
