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“The Way It Is”

The title piece of William Stafford’s “New and Selected Poems” is “The Way It Is”:There is a thread you follow.  It goes amongthings that change.  But it doesn’t change.People wonder about what you are pursuing.You have to...

Choices When There Aren’t Many

Freedom, joy and generosity grow in us when we see ourselves in the true light of God’s abundant grace—when we allow God’s own generosity to heal our eyes so that we may see that there is more than enough, especially more than enough love, for all of us.  Our...

Uninvited but effective teacher

On my birthday last year, I wrote these words in my journal:    I want to know more about the power of gentleness, the courage of vulnerability, the expansiveness of honored limits, the serious work humor can do, the faith which doubt inspires, and the...

I need your prayers

From a statement I made to my friends at First Baptist Church in Asheville today: I need your prayers for wisdom and for courage as I deal with some hard news I have recently received. Over the last week or so, following an array of tests, I have learned that I have...

O God, just stay with me

In a NYT editorial earlier this week, David Brooks mentioned the music of Audrey Assad.  I didn’t know about her or her music, but I tracked it down online.  Among many lyrically, as well as musically, fine songs is “Show Me.”  I find...

God Loves Our Bodies

Back in December, I posted a reflection on how the incarnation—God’s becoming flesh in Jesus—was a ground of assurance that we may trust the goodness and love of God.  God is, the incarnation makes clear, like Jesus.  Another crucial truth of the incarnation...

Toward Tomorrow

Near the end of Toni Morrison’s novel, Beloved, Paul D., a freed slave, tells Sethe, a woman who escaped slavery but remains haunted by her memories of it: “Me and you, we got more yesterday than anybody.  We need some kind of tomorrow.” We can be chained to...

The Sea Creates Ships; Love Makes Relationships

The writer most of know as the creator of The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, said: “If you want to build a ship, don’t herd people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the...

Baptism and What it Means to be Human

Last Sunday morning, as did many Christians, we remembered the baptism of Jesus.  We gave thanks for great gifts of grace and mercy which flow into us and surround us through our immersion in the love of God made known in Jesus’ life, teachings, death and...

Alive in the World

Jackson Browne sang: I want to live in the world not inside my head. . . To open my eyes and wake up alive in the world To open my eyes and fully arrive in the world. Me too.  I want to hear the blues singer on the street and to tap my feet to bluegrass in a...