To return to joy, to build a safe world for our children, to heal, we must take a stand against guns. To be people of courage, integrity, heart and grace, we must see it through this time.

Pastors are meant to do funerals for old people who have passed. But when pastors have to bury so many children from the deaths of gun violence, the moral sequence of the world has been turned around.

The word conspire means "to breathe with." My hope and belief is that everyone can experience the beauty and healing power of Community. By embodying love actively and engaging the Beloved within ourselves, we can conspire to transform the entire world into a love-based Community.

On Jan. 28, 2010, I was tired, cold and hopeless. I was dirty, hungry and broken. It was impossible for me to help myself. Thankfully, the God of the Bible -- the God of love, grace and forgiveness -- knew that and He saved me from myself.

This attitude can have profound effects on our world and our deepest selves. By definition, if our orientation is toward pursuing truth rather than possessing it, we are admitting that we don't know, that there is a great deal left to learn and discover.

As a Muslim American parent, I have unique struggles in the post 9/11 landscape. But like parents of any faith, I want my daughter to find in her faith a place of comfort and security, a refuge from harshness.

Why is it that we can be "friends" with thousands on Facebook and literally find the answers to unfathomable questions, and still be searching? People today are exploring every avenue looking to add meaning and resolution to their lives.

I once belonged more to the "Nones" than anything else. I checked Jewish on the box, but that mark was more about a cultural than religious identity. In my teens, I felt disconnected from Judaism. I was a religious school dropout at 12. But at age 41, I was in a much different place.

We have a responsibility to ourselves, to our families and to the world to embrace that which is life-giving for our unique, differentiated selves. This invariably means that each of us is on an adventurous, sometimes nerve-wracking transformational journey.

Everybody knows everybody and we look out for each other, especially one segment of our little community: 76 foster kids Possum Trot families have taken in. Not bad for a town of 600, right? Some people say it's a miracle.

For fear of upsetting those on my friend list who aren't Christians, I avoid writing, liking or sharing any cartoons, updates or Memes related to Christ. This purposeful neglect not only takes me far off the walkway, but it has me digging in the dirt, searching for redemption.

When God fails to intervene in human suffering, the acceptance of a loving deity who cares for his children arouses fresh doubts.

Boom! The floor swayed. Glass fell at my feet. Someone shouted, "Hit the floor!" I dropped, flat on the ground. Silence. Then a stampede of feet. Police sirens. I looked up. There was a hole in the stained-glass window where Jesus' face had been.

There are so many diets and weight loss products, books, films and blogs it's so hard to know what to do with overweight and obesity.

The only hope for us is to stop in our tracks and turn our intention to finding the path leading to the healing of our national addiction to violence and its glorification.

Theologians through the ages remind us that doubt is integral to belief and even to prayer. Paul Tillich argued that "doubt is not the opposite of faith; it is an element of faith." God is present in our doubt as much as our certainty.

Pew's report puts out enormous challenges to people of faith. Scientific and scholarly findings unambiguously suggest that world religions are far from fulfilling their promise to humanity.

These are good, serious and thoughtful people, usually deeply committed to Judaism, who struggle with big religious questions in a way that makes no sense. They may think that they can wring the holiness out of their Jewish identity and practice, but they cannot.