Ronnie McBrayer

Here is the world as it is: There are those tortured by evil and injustice; there are those desperate for help and answers; there are those without the will or ability to be a part of any solution; and there are those who callously point their fingers, write the suffering and desperate masses off, and go on their way. It may not be the world I would have created, but we have no other choice but to...

Part 6: "...Accepting hardship as the pathway to peace..."  If I could take you back to the moment you first drew air into your lungs; if I could take you back to the swaddled little baby that you were and reveal to you all that was going to happen to you over the decades to come, you would have cried - cried that you had been born - and cried to return to the warmth and safety of the womb.  But t...

The Serenity Prayer, Part 5: "'God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference.' But the prayer continues. The next line: 'Living one day at a time; enjoying one moment at a time.' There is acceptance - you can’t change some things. There is courage - you must change the things you can. There is wisdom -...

Part 4 of Ronnie's series on The Serenity Prayer: "God grant me wisdom." Ronnie says, "Optimism is a false hope. Pessimism is as suicide pact. Idealism is a fool’s errand - as a recovering idealist, it pains me to say that. This world can only be navigated by realists; realists who feel the strain, experience the tension of keeping balance, and beg God for wisdom." 

In this third installment of Ronnie's current series, he picks up the theme of courage: "Having the courage to change the things we can." Ronnie says, "We all have internal insecurities, negative voices that shout out from the basement of our hearts to keep us afraid. We all have challenges that seem insurmountable - impossible to overcome. And our fears won't go away. They must be faced, for cour...

"Oh, God, grant me there serenity to accept the things I cannot change." And by acceptance, what is meant? It means you cannot deny reality. You cannot successfully resist the facts of your situation. Take people and things as they are. The longer you resist reality, frankly, the more desperate you will become. The longer you struggle and fight against what cannot be overcome or modified, the more...

Reinhold Niebuhr, a legendary ethicist and theologian from the previous century, may have produced the greatest single slice of spirituality in the history of North America when he penned a profound prayer in 1932. That prayer begins: "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference.” This is the first t...

"Why would someone wish or ask to be baptized in the first place? Well, that depends upon who you ask. And then, of course, there is the question of how we baptize properly? Do we pour, sprinkle, immerse, dip, spray, squirt, squeegee, soak or flush? Again, it depends upon who you ask. Modes and means of baptism are as diverse as Christianity itself. But we can’t ignore the fact that it is an essen...

"So, it's true after all: God is out to get you! Just like the sandwich-board evangelists have always said...But it’s not with the closed fist of anger and punishment. God arrives with an invitation in hand. God invites you to the party. God welcomes you to the table. At least that’s the kind of God revealed to us by Jesus. I don’t know where we got this other God who is so hateful and unkind; thi...

"Have you ever seen a peacock? It's a strutting parade. He's popping his feathers...all territorial...marking their boundaries. He makes noise, trying to get attention. And they might shine, but he mostly makes a mess and disturbs the neighbors. A peacock is so noisy because it can’t sing. It shows off its feathers because it has no other redeeming qualities. A peacock struts because it can’t fly....

"If I lose hope – I have lost the very vitality of my present life and given up on the possibility of a more loving future – for myself, and all who will come after me. Without hope, I can only leave my children, my grandchildren, and their children nothing but despair. This I refuse to do. I cannot allow myself to surrender to cynicism; I refuse to accept the status quo as the best we can do; I s...

“How can we regain the ability to form Christian disciples who will actually be guided by Jesus, instead of politics or economics or the fashionable? Can we infuse those in our congregations with such courage, that they will be able stand for what is right and true and virtuous - even if it means losing what have been long-lasting relationships; even if it means losing status or favor with others?...

There are some puzzles that simply cannot be solved. We don’t have the ability. We don’t have the time. So, we twist and writhe, losing sleep and years in the process, trying to find answers. The better part of wisdom might be to put such puzzles down and get on with living the life we have, rather than obsessing over what we can do nothing about. In my experience, one word would capture most of t...

 “The world is held together, really it is held together, by the love and the passion of just a few people.” That quote from James Baldwin captures the idea of the "Tzadikim" from Jewish mysticism. Tzadikim means, “the righteous ones." Based on Genesis 18, the Talmud elaborates: “There are no fewer than 36 righteous people in the world who daily greet the glory of God and uphold creation.” That is...

"My wife calls me a minimalist. But a new word has been introduced into my vocabulary: Essentialism. As I am learning, a minimalist is concerned with having less stuff; fewer possessions; buying less. I like all that for sure.  "But an essentialist is one who seeks to untangle from the unnecessary, turning life toward the vital; the absolute crucial. It’s not so much about having less - it’s holdi...

"People behave the way they behave because they are driven by what is within them. That’s simply how the human heart works. If it’s all garbage and rubbish on the inside of a person, then garbage and rubbish is the only possible outcome, and you need not expect anything different. The only way to amend, reform, redeem, or change a person’s actions is by the amendment, reformation, redemption, and...

Taking a slice from Revelation 7 and the writings of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Ronnie speaks to how, "beauty will save the world." He says: "You can call me a dreamer. But I’m not the only one. You can call me a foolish idealist. I’m most comfortable with that. You can call me an idiot. I’ll take it as a compliment. Because I would  rather try - by God's grace try - to be hopeful and faithful, compassio...

"Doubt alone won’t keep you where you are, for honest doubt is a good thing. But fear? Fear stops all forward motion. Fear disables and immobilizes. Fear strangles the courage right out of you. Fear becomes the controlling, overpowering, paralyzing emotion. It can become so crippling, that we are blinded to the possibilities of the future. Faith is the only antidote - actionable faith. Faith is no...

"Here is an invitation that is too rarely extended: Come to Jesus and find joy. Find adventure. Find yourself...then, find yourself challenged. Find yourself stretched. Find yourself pushed; pushed into deep water; pushed beyond safety, comfort, manageability, and sometimes, pushed beyond what passes as good sense. Come to Jesus for the salvation of your soul; sure, but stay for the invigoration o...

"We are a communal species, made in the image of God - for God is a communal being as well: The Three in One. It’s a variation of UBUNTU: We are, because God is. We are not isolated individuals - we are community - we are we. Simply by praying in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit - by simply using this Trinity language - we remind ourselves, and we witness to the world, that we...

A shout out to the Milwaukee Airport...the Ascension of Jesus...and the "recombobulation" of the days to come: Jesus said, "The Father alone has the authority to set those dates and times.” Yes, a day will come when this same Jesus who ascended into heaven will return, but the timing is “not for you to know.” Rather, "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my w...

“The books of the Holy Bible never say but one time just exactly what God is, but in three little words it pours out a hundred million college educations and says, ‘God Is Love.’ And that is the only real definite answer to ten thousand wild queries and questions that I my own self have tossed at my Bible. That is the only really sensible, easy, honest, warm, plain, quick, and clear answer I found...

"When it is love that overturns and redirects your life, how can one not become loving? When light leads you out of darkness, how can you not be a person of the light? "Enough of this 'Personal Profile' Christianity You know what I mean: Go find the crummiest, nastiest, most curmudgeon-spirited person on social media, or in the comments section, or who attends your annual HOA meeting. He or she wi...

"Saul of Tarsus was a fundamentalist; and very little can be more damaging, more hurtful and harmful, than hard-shelled, hard-hearted fundamentalism. Fundamentalism is spirituality gone wrong; it is piety turned sour. It is a form of compromised, contaminated religion that has substituted right living with rule-following. It is fueled by impending judgment and certain punishment rather than by spi...

Prenatal Conversations... Moksha and Olam Ha-Ba... Albert Einstein and the First Law of Thermodynamics... Monarch Butterflies... The Apostle Paul as the Primary Source of the Belief in Resurrection... Listen to this Easter episode to discover what all of these have in common.