The world is on fire. This is always the case. There are forever wars and rumors of war, famine and strife, brother turning against brother -- and sometimes all of them happen at once. This week, with the floods, and the fires, and the political upheavals, my heart has been heavy. I've wanted alternately to act and to hide, to write checks and to dive under the blankets. But the blankets are no place for revolution, and if you don't at least carry the water you have been given, the flames will never dissolve.

How much time are we willing to spend debating right thinking at the expense of right living? The last couple of years I’ve been captivated by the idea of orthopraxy as opposed to orthodoxy. Orthodoxy is the concept of 'right thinking,' or 'right belief.' In a system which requires orthodoxy, belonging requires one to believe a certain set of assertions. If one cannot ascribe to those beliefs, then membership in that system is denied, and one can no longer belong.