Last week my grandson was born. The first of the next generation in our family. It feels like I have become my father — looking ahead not one but two generations. Our culture is coming loose from many traditional moorings. Cut adrift, we’ve elected leaders who “hate good and love evil,” to quote Micah. But … More Because This Child Is Born
I am so tired of losing. Every major candidate I voted for last week lost. Again. I mention that not to raise a political agenda, but an emotional one. I feel exhausted by losing over and over. Teresa and I were part of a church start in Fort Worth years ago. We poured ourselves into … More Losing or Letting Go?
The stories, morning after morning, of the horrific war in Ukraine overwhelm us. For self defense I look away at something else in the news. Yet in the back of my mind the images still play, pictures of destruction, death. We thought it couldn’t happen again in Europe after WWII, but here it is, happening … More Subterranean Hope
One-half million people are gone. Our nation has passed a milestone of immense tragedy: 500,000 dead from Covid-19. More US citizens have died in a the past year from this novel virus than died in WWI, WWII, and Vietnam combined. The devastation is unfathomable. And the per capita number of Americans who have perished from … More Lamenting to Hope
“Behold, my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him: he will bring forth justice for the nations. He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick … More Bruised Reeds and Smoldering Wicks
It was an ordinary day. Perhaps Mary was weeding the family garden patch in that poor backwater community of Nazareth when an angel, named Gabriel, unexpectedly appeared. The angel had an unusual message for Mary: “You have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call … More Unexpected Expectancy
These days we are all living in between, in a liminal space. Liminality is an in-between state, as if you’ve left one room but are not yet in the next room. It’s a place of transition that leaves us looking backward at what was, and ahead at what will be, sometimes feeling unsettled by the … More Living In Between
Life is a mess. Covid-19 keeps acting like a pandemic, paying no attention whatsoever to politicians who want to send it packing with their denials of science. The virus is immune to protestations by economic enterprises desperate to staunch financial hemorrhaging. Covid is in control, not us. Accept it, cope with it, be real. It’s … More Life Is a Mess
In a time of disruption, when the normal patterns of life are bent, we have two choices. One is to use the effort of one’s mind or will to try to make sense of what has gone wrong or try to straighten what is bent. The head wants to return to the prior status quo, … More Healing of Dis-Ease
An Ever-Flowing Stream 