A UU Minister Goes To A Trump Rally | Rev. Dr. Marlin Lavanhar | All Souls Unitarian Church

What if the thing you're most afraid of is the reason anything is precious? We spend so much energy outrunning death. But the limits are what give a life its shape. Everything you love is going to end. That isn't a flaw in the design. A child's laugh, a turning leaf, an ordinary Tuesday dinner: none of it matters less because it ends. It matters more. QUESTIONS TO SIT WITH: Who do you love so much that losing them scares you? What ordinary moment from this week would you miss terribly if it were gone? When someone you love is hurting, do you move toward them or pull away? Knowing how much love can hurt, would you still choose it? CHAPTERS: 0:00 Opening Song 0:52 Full Circle 1:46 "What Happens When We Die?" 4:25 A Bath Full of Stars 5:32 Worth It, No Matter What 6:05 Life and Death Arrive Together 7:53 Yes to Life Is Yes to Death 8:45 Running From the Limits 10:16 The Choice to Stay 11:33 Grief and Beauty, Together 14:43 Grief Is Part of the Fight 16:47 Would You Choose It Again? 17:28 Closing Song This message, "Yes to Life! Yes to Death!," was delivered by Rev. Dr. Molly Housh Gordon at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa. SUBSCRIBE TO WATCH OTHER VIDEOS: @allsoulsunitarian GIVE A DONATION TO HELP US SPREAD THIS LOVE BEYOND BELIEF: https://www.allsoulschurch.org/GIVE or text AllSoulsTulsa to 73256 LET'S CONNECT: Facebook: /allsoulstulsa Instagram: /allsoulstulsa All Souls Church Website: https://www.allsoulschurch.org #AllSoulsTulsa #AllSoulsUnitarianChurch #LoveBeyondBelief #LifeAndDeath #Grief

A crowd isn't belonging. You can sit in the same room for years and still be a stranger. Belonging is being missed, being needed, and giving the room something nobody asked you for. It takes all of us or it doesn't happen at all. In a country loud with platitudes and prejudice, All Souls points to the best in people instead of the worst. It tears down walls, stands against fear, and asks nothing that insults your intelligence or your conscience. Just a place to be fully yourself, with people who are fully there with you. Religion here is for joy, comfort, gratitude, and love. It cares more about human beings than doctrine, and never calls anyone a sinner while knowing how hard everyone is fighting. That's what's waiting for you, and it's yours to help keep. QUESTIONS TO SIT WITH: What are you doing with your time, your money, and your energy that makes the world a little better? Knowing your life is limited, how do you want to spend the time in between? Is belonging just a feeling for you, or something you actually show up and do? Are you just passing through, or are you part of this?

You don't have to be a spiritual person to have a sacred experience. You just have to be the kind of person who feeds the horses even when you don't want to — because the holy stuff doesn't show up for people waiting around for it. It shows up for people doing the unglamorous, thankless work of taking care of something else, on a morning they'd rather have skipped.

What if the real test of a belief has nothing to do with whether it's true and everything to do with what it makes of you?

The world is dangerous and beautiful at the same time. Most of us only have the bandwidth to notice one — so we either rush past the hard parts, or shrink our whole lives down to avoid them.Writer Annie Dillard warned against exactly that: living an "itsy bitsy" life to dodge how wild and extravagant the world really is. Rev. Dr. Nicole Kirk pairs that challenge with the story of Kate Bowler, told at 35 that she had two years to live, and a friend's gentle instruction — don't skip to the end. Kirk connects both ideas to her own experience choosing to live, not wait, through her husband's terminal illness.It's a message about staying present to everything at once: the danger, the beauty, and the people who help you carry both.QUESTIONS TO SIT WITH:- Are you rushing past a hard season, or shrinking yourself to survive it — or both?- Have you ever made an intentional choice about how to live in uncertainty, rather than just enduring it?- Can you hold "this is dangerous" and "this is beautiful" as true at the same time?- What's one place you've been living small to avoid something big?CHAPTERS:0:00 Opening Song1:01 A Diagnosis, and a Secret2:48 "Don't Skip to the End"3:00 My Own Threshold4:31 What Is a Threshold?8:02 Coming of Age & New Beginnings9:22 The Fall Equinox11:30 A World on Edge12:33 A Warning Against Shrinking14:55 Turning Cancer Into Art18:02 A Lifeline of Beauty19:53 Present in the Betwixt and Between21:24 You Don't Have to Wait Alone23:22 Measured by Love23:47 Closing SongThis message, "Beauty in a Spot of Danger," was delivered by Rev. Dr. Nicole Kirk at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa.SUBSCRIBE TO WATCH OTHER VIDEOS: @allsoulsunitarianGIVE A DONATION TO HELP US SPREAD THIS LOVE BEYOND BELIEF: https://www.allsoulschurch.org/GIVE or text AllSoulsTulsa to 73256LET'S CONNECT:Facebook: /allsoulstulsaInstagram: /allsoulstulsaAll Souls Church Website: https://www.allsoulschurch.org#AllSoulsTulsa #AllSoulsUnitarianChurch #LoveBeyondBelief #Grief #Presence