Everyday Parables
Rediscovering God in Common Things
- Publisher
- Wood Lake Publishing
- Initial publish date
- Aug 1995
- Category
- Personal Growth
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781551450551
- Publish Date
- Aug 1995
- List Price
- $19.95
-
eBook
- ISBN
- 9781770642713
- Publish Date
- Aug 1995
- List Price
- $7.98
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Description
Discover the divine in loss and grief and everyday chores with James Taylor's Everyday Parables. In his distinctive way, James writes inspiring and heart-warming prose.
About the author
Contributor Notes
"Jim Taylor is one of Canada's best known authors and editors among mainline churches and denominations. He is the author of twelve books himself including The Spirituality of Pets (2006), An Everyday God (2005), Precious Days and Practical Love: Caring for an Aging Parent (1999), The Canadian Religious Travelguide (1982), Discovering Discipleship (with George Johnston, 1983), Two Worlds in One (1985), Last Chance (1989), Surviving Death (1993) republished as Letters to Stephen (1996), Everyday Psalms (1994), Everyday Parables (1995), Sin: A New Understanding of Virtue and Vice (1997), Lifelong Living (for the United Church's Division of Mission in Canada) (1983), and The Spiritual Crisis of Cancer (for the Canadian Cancer Society) (1984).
He was the founding editor of the ecumenical clergy journal Practice of Ministry in Canada (PMC) for the first 15 years of its publication. He was for 13 years Managing Editor of The United Church Observer. A co-founder of Wood Lake Books, Taylor lives and works in British Columbia's Okanagan Valley.
Excerpt: Everyday Parables: Rediscovering God in Common Things (by (author) James Taylor)
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On Doorknobs
No matter what their shape or size of the doorknobs, they all have the same purpose. Levers or balls, wood or metal or plastic, warm or cold to the touch, they all exist only to open doors. Perhaps Christians are like those doorknobs. We too come in many shapes and sizes. And some of us are warm or cold, when touched. We like to think we have lofty tasks to perform. But maybe all that matters is that we open doors - to life, to faith, to God - through which others may pass.
We don't need to know how it works. We just have to do it.
Door
One side of a door says "Push," the other says "Pull."
Push and pull are usually considered opposites. But there's no such thing as a door that you can only push, or only pull.
Conventional wisdom thinks of good and evil, right and wrong, sin and salvation, as opposites too. But maybe they're like two sides of a door.
Most of our sins, in fact, are virtues pushed to an extreme. Healthy self-esteem becomes arrogant pride; thrift becomes greed and avarice; the rituals of love become abuse, exploitation, or rape; technology intended to enrich life pollutes the air and causes disease; medical science prolongs life past the point where life matters any more.
Like a door, all these things have two sides.
But the door of life isn't marked. It's up to us to know when to push forward, and when to pull back.
Other titles by
More Everyday Parables
Simple Stories for Spiritual Reflection
An Everyday God
Insights from the Ordinary
The Spirituality of Pets
Everyday Psalms
The power of the Psalms in language and images for today
In the Aftermath
What September 11 is teaching us about our world, our faith and ourselves
John for Beginners
A Bible Study for Individual or Group Use
Global Connections
Geography for the 21st Century
Precious Days & Practical Love
Caring For Your Aging Parent