Calling Continues

On an early spring Sunday afternoon when I was eight years old, I walked the short distance from my family’s home to the home of our pastor, Ken Haag. I was often there, usually to see my friend, Tony; but, that day, I wanted to talk with Brother Ken. To use the...

Living While Dying

Ten years ago this month, I was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma, an incurable but increasingly manageable cancer of the bone marrow and blood. At diagnosis, the median survival rate was about five years, so I’ve lived far longer than I then had reason to think I...

Do You See What I See?

A week ago, I stood near a Christmas tree in a sanctuary.  We sang “Away in a Manger.” I had a lot on my mind, and I was also dealing with a good bit of pain. I sang without noticing what I was singing until I heard the others in the room and, in a slightly...

A (Kind of) Liminal Week

By a quirk and gift of the calendar, this year is one of those comparatively rare ones in which there is a week in-between the Sunday after Thanksgiving and the First Sunday of Advent. That extra week doesn’t eliminate but it does temper just a bit the scrambling...

Grateful for a God Who is Joyful Love

Among the many gifts for which I am grateful this Thanksgiving season is the simple, lifesaving, and life-changing truth that God really is love. I have known that glad affirmation from childhood on but integrating it into my heart and experiencing its power to heal...

The Tug of the Invisible

When Amanda and Eliot were young, we’d often fly a kite on Easter afternoon. After lunch, I’d feel groggy from the busy and glad morning of worship leadership, but the kids would be amped-up on chocolate bunnies, peanut-butter cup eggs, and jelly- beans. I’d want to...