It matters to me that life is fair. I know that life isn’t fair—naturally—but one of the ways that New Church teachings have really come to life for me is in finding the ways that life is fair spiritually. It has always felt very important to me to believe in a fair God. I have spent a lot of time over the past few years thinking about Divine Providence, and I think when I first was looking it seemed sort of flat and lifeless. But now it feels like one of the most healing, wonderful, and epic teachings in my life because it has showed me that God is universally fair.

Here are some of the passages that articulate some of the ideas that really matter to me. I’m including some long readings here, but bear with me. The story of Joseph from Genesis is quite long (you can read it starting here). It is a story that includes pain, difficulty and loss, much of which is referred to in the quote I am including, but to save space I’m not going to include more of the story. Continue reading Is God Fair? →

As a performer, I am no stranger to praise, and attempting to stay humble has always been an important part of who I am. Because I started dancing when I was four, I was taught from a very young age how to receive compliments gracefully and how to always make sure I thanked people for coming to see me. Since then, my performances have expanded to include theater and voice and the same rules still apply. What I discovered as I grew older, however, is that praise is a very difficult thing to deal with. If you let it go to your head, you become prideful; if you deny it, you become ungrateful…not quite so glorious as it may seem. I think praise can be very useful, but only if you know how to handle it.
Continue reading Praise: Is it My Gift or His? →

“And why dost thou look at the bit of straw in thy brother’s eye but considerest not the beam in thine own eye?” Matthew 7:3 (Kempton Translation)

Things are not always as they seem. The Writings talk about not spiritually judging people — not assuming they are going to heaven or hell based on what we think we see in them. We certainly have to be able to make distinctions and judgments about what is right and wrong, otherwise everything would fall apart, but we can’t know someone’s internal state. We should be working on cleaning up our own lives first anyway, and when we are doing that, the Lord can help us see much more clearly.

I’ve been lucky to live my whole life in New Church communities surrounded by friends, family and teachers who have supported me in examining the Doctrines of the New Church.

Three years ago I graduated from Bryn Athyn College of the New Church and then immediately moved to Virginia to start working at Colonial Williamsburg — apparently the largest living history museum in the world (yes, it is a very fun magical job). This was my first time living far from a New Church community and the first time for me to really have to apply all the things I’ve been learning my whole life. There have been so many new things for me to learn, lots of them fun and satisfying — and several of them not quite so fun. One of these challenges was something I was even expecting but still didn’t enjoy it at all — a moral culture shock. Settling into life here outside of work I found that my moral standards seemed way higher than most people, which made it hard at first to see the good in my neighbor, and which also blinded me to some glaring problems in myself.
Continue reading The Speck in Thy Brother’s Eye →