When we think of "religion," it's easy to assume the word only applies to formally established denominations and sects. But if we're human, we're worshipping something. "Your religion is your witness is the shape your love takes in all things." (pg. 23) In other words, "it's all religion all the time."

Drawing from life, art, science fiction, and the Bible to name a few (all truth is God's truth), the chapters expose area of our lives, our relationships, our thinking to the light. Not in a heavy-handed "This is the application your supposed to walk away with." But like a weaver who begins to blend the threads of what it means to be human and neighbor and then passes the shuttle to you to make your own connections.

The chapters on "The Chother" and "Policy is Liturgy Writ Large" hit home. There was much I could relate to, and I felt seen in my concerns. You'll need to read the book to find out what "Chother" means.

This review is based on the earlier edition of the book. But in its unexpanded version, Life's Too Short... is one of my 2023 favs hands down.

Lots of underlining and dog ears.

David Dark eloquently makes the case for how we're never not religious. Some favorite excerpts from the book:

"As I see the bad religion situation, the answer isn't a matter of stepping out and starting new traditions so much a it's a matter of approaching the currents we're already in from a different angle, one person, one relationship at a time."

Question of our lives: "What are the movements, the ancestral lines, within and along which we'd like, or hope, to find our own lives in deep continuity?"

"Here's hoping that our neuroses might also be, in some deep sense, our wisdom." Indeed.

“You never hear people put it this way, and I don’t intend to start a trend, but when we consider the ever-evolving process of a person’s thinking, the way a person imagines and organizes the world, it could almost seem appropriate to ask each other from time to time, How’s your religion coming along? How’s it going? Born again, or the same old, same old? Did you successfully distinguish darkness from light in the course of your day? Is there a fever in your mind that won’t go away? Mind if I prescribe a poem?”

“Witness calls for withness, the complete opposite of detached observation... To receive the witness of another is to enter into a vision that isn't accessible to us in isolation; we realize ourselves as members of one another and feel compelled to act accordingly, finding that we can't easily live with ourselves if we don't.”

“As I see the bad religion situation, the answer isn't a matter of stepping out and starting new traditions so much as it's a matter of approaching the currents we're already in from a different angle, one person, one relationship at a time. And even putting it this way brings to mind the poet-pastor Eugene Peterson, who once observed that the besetting sin of the American people is probably impatience. This sounds so right to me, especially when I consider the possibility that there's hardly a sin I can think of that isn't somehow born of misperceived need, of haste and its accompanying inattentiveness, of some feverish variation once more of Hurry up and matter! Being true - ringing true - will have to involve a slow work of recognition and resistance to that mad and nervy, deluding spirit. To begin to be true is to try to choose - or risk choosing - presence over progress, really showing up and taking the time to wonder what we're really up to, what we're doing and why.”

“I'm never not worshiping. I'm never not confessing my faith in one way or another. And, if I may be permitted a return to the plural, understanding ourselves to be just as religious as any and everyone else might afford us time, space and vision with which to see ourselves more clearly and honestly, the better to grasp or begin to grasp - it's a life's work after all - the deepest implications of what we're doing to ourselves and others.”

I really liked Dark’s earlier work, The Sacredness of Questioning Everything. My faith allows for, actually encourages folks, to question and even doubt their beliefs. I don’t want to just accept what is preached, but to think through how what is said works with how I see Jesus and Christianity.

I gave away my copy of “questioning everything” and I basically forgot about Dark. Then, recently his name was mentioned in something I read. And so, I pick up this volume of his work. It took me awhile to figure out where he is headed. For me, these words are reminding me that we all worship something. We all have a religion. It is not right to put down others because we don’t like their religion. We need to see how what they believe works with the world. We need to consider our own beliefs.

Between this book and the book about listening, I have had a month of considering others and their beliefs. I appreciate how this book and Murphy’s work, You’re Not Listening played against each other in my brain. I needed to read them both. Murphy and Dark made me look at other people with more compassion. I can’t wait to see what books help me learn more in September.