We are generally more concerned with how we live than what happens after we die, and more interested in creating salvation (or healing) in this life than looking for it in the next. And yet, all of us must deal with the disturbing reality that we and all those we love will eventually be lost to death. How do we make sense of that inevitable loss?

Selections to explore:

• Love and Death | essay by Forrest Church
• Resurrections | essay by Barbara Pescan
• A Shovel Full of Earth | poem by Melitta Haslund
• When I Die | quote by May Sarton
• Coming and Going | reflection by Meg Riley
• So Many Little Deaths | excerpt by Carl Scovel

Unitarian Universalists and other religious liberals tend to focus on human potential and human goodness, and the ways in which we can choose to make our world better. But there is no question that there is a very real human tendency to toward greed, fear, selfishness and even cruelty. How do we grapple with that reality while holding on to optimism about human nature and our ability to make positive change?

Selections to explore:

• The Gift of Sin | reflection by Suzelle Lynch
• Sin Brought Me Back | meditation by Betty Bobo Seiden
• The Question of Evil | reflection by Thom Belote

How much do we need for ourselves, and how much should we give away? How far should the circle of our concern reach? In a world with so much hurt, how much of our care, concern and resources should go to making life better for others and how much do we protect our own hearts and resources? This central religious question has no easy answers.

Selections to explore:

• How Much Do We Deserve? | reflection by John Buehrens
• The Wellspring of Decency | meditation by Sharon Welch
• Sorry, Hon, Not My Table | meditation by Meg Barnhouse
• Do Justice | reflection by Fredric J. Muir

Perhaps the central question of liberal religion is the question of how to live a life that is ethical and compassionate, and leaves the world in some measure better than how we found it.

Selections to explore:

• Cherish the Dream | reflection by David E. Bumbaugh
• Striving for Perfection | reflection by Kelly J. Crocker
• To Live Deliberately | poem by Henry David Thoreau

While traditional Christians view salvation as something that comes through the redemption of Jesus Christ, and leads to eternal life in heaven, we think of salvation more in terms of its root word, which means to heal or make whole (as in salve). What may happen after death is less of a question than how we might find wholeness for ourselves and create healing in the world.

Selections to explore:

• What must I do to be saved? | reflection by Stephen D. Edington
• Restoration | reflection by Marjorie (Midge) Skwire
• Salvation | poem by Lynn Ungar

Or, to ask the question a different way, what is The Ultimate? What is the biggest thing that we all belong to? What is inside each of us and beyond all of us? Different religions of the world have different ways of answering this question, and there is no one “right” answer that allows someone to say “This is what God is like. I know for sure.” Some people relate to a personal God who watches over them and gives them comfort. Some people understand God as something more abstract: the creative force of the universe, or Love. Some people figure that God is just a story that people make up, and not necessarily even a very good story.

In this section, we explore:

• Brief Thoughts on God | anthology of meditations, edited by Paul Rasor
• Do You Believe in God? | reflection by Jane Rzepka
• What Will We Do with God? | reflection by Brian J. Kiely