Category Ruminations
Moving down in the world
“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense,” Lewis Carroll wrote. “Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn’t. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn’t be. And what it wouldn’t be, it would. You see?” It’s a topsy-turvy world, a through-the-looking-glass reality where everything is […]
Worthy of our full attention
Today we formally welcome Jackson Thomas Grieco into the created life we all share. We affirm that he, like everyone, has an essential role to play in God’s ongoing creation, even though we may never know what that role will be. We affirm that without him acting authentically in his God-given role, our own lives […]
The one thing necessary
Martha “was distracted by her many tasks,” the scriptures tell us (Luke 10:38-42), and she didn’t even have Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. It’s no wonder we’re distracted today. Ask a room full of busy professionals how they feel most days and you’re likely to find that just about everyone swims in a flood of distractions, […]
And who is my neighbor?
It’s important to know who my neighbor is, the one I’m to love, because my life depends on it, and yours does, too. Having life, the abundant life that was the whole purpose of Jesus’ life and teaching, the more and better life than anyone ever dreamed of (John 10:10 The Message), depends on two […]
Becoming the Word
We’re still close enough to the season of commencement addresses to remember the advice of Ray Bradbury: “Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. . . […]
Companions in the journey
Sometimes Jesus just seems cranky, like during this road trip through Samaria (Luke 9:51-62). Someone offers to follow him, and Jesus encourages him to reconsider. You’ll have no place ever again to call home, Jesus tells him, no place even to rest (vv. 57-58). Jesus invites another, who wants to honor his father, and tells […]
The power of one
Have you been saved? I remember the last time someone asked me that question. It was during my undergraduate years when I was working at a funeral home – an oddly appropriate place to ask the question, don’t you think – and someone whom I vaguely knew came up to me and asked with all […]
