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He Made Me Do it!
I’m a minister and – One of the things I hate most about religions is how they get used to justify hurtful actions and words. An example: “Why did this bad thing happen to me?” or “why is this innocent…
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WTF?
When I was little, I remember wanting more than anything, the protection of my mother’s lap. If life seemed scary, or out of control, or I knew that my little 7 year-old self had gotten in over his head, mom…
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Why You Should (Sometimes) Welcome Dying
Welcome to 99 – brought to you by Prolificate.com, where I offer interfaith inspiration, mentoring, and support. I’m your host Andrew Chirch – Interfaith minister and spiritual coach for real people like you. The idea for 99 comes from the…
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The One Thing to Remember when Life Gets Tough
Think of a time you felt aware of your good fortune – or of being given a gift. I don’t mean aware, like “oh, someone just handed me this gift and so I’m aware of it.” I mean the kind…
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Rediscovering God through Your Desire
In Arabic there is this word, Ya Wadud, which translates as Divine love. To me, this kind of love is the most powerful, least disguised, and even a little scary. The kind of love this is talking about includes sexual…
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How to Never Run Out of Love
I want YOU to want ME. That’s a great song by the band Cheap Trick. It’s also the source of so much misery I can hardly believe it. Those words may be the source of anything that’s wrong with us…
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Some Advice from Job about your Suffering
This week’s message is just for you if you’ve ever wondered why bad things happen to good people. It’s inspired by the Arabic Ya-Adl, meaning something like just mercy, but in a meta sense that also is about balance, and…
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The Antidote to Your Inner Critic
This episode of 99 is bright and happy. Are you ready? You’re not smart enough. If you’d only try harder you’d get ahead. Why did you do such a stupid thing? I told you that being a teacher was a…
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The One Person You Must Meet
I want to share one of my favorite stories. I know it from the Taoist tradition, though maybe it has other roots as well. There was an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years. One day his…
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Discover the Patience of an Ant
Are you always setting goals? Always striving for something? Are you certain that you’re ALMOST THERE, and when you finally get that one thing or do that one thing, THEN you will have arrived?? No? Good. Because that makes one…
