Ruminations
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God beyond our sanctuary
When despair for the world grows in meand I wake in the night at the least soundin fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,I go and lie down where the wood drakerests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.I come into the peace of wild thingswho do… Continue reading
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Are you hungry?
Earlier this year, many of you shared with me your greatest hope. One of you said it was to give the best of yourself to those in need. For another, it was that your daughters “live a happy life by following their hearts.” Someone’s hope was “release from injustices and abuse,” and for another it… Continue reading
abundant life, banquet of heaven, calling the disciples, Christian minority, community, feeding the multitude, garden of Eden, good news, hope, Joseph Campbell, miracles of Jesus, New Jerusalem, Nicodemus, rapture of being alive, spiritual hunger, the gospel, The Great Dechurching, wedding at Cana, wedding feast -
Feasting on heaven’s banquet
One of my favorite pieces of advice is from the fourth-century Hindu philosopher, playwright, and poet Kalidasa. “Look to this day,” he wrote, “for it is Life – the very Life of Life. In its brief course lie all the verities and realities of your existence: the bliss of growth, the glory of action, the… Continue reading
Alistair Begg, faith, fake it till you make it, good news, gospel, harmony, heaven, Hebrews, Jesus, Kalidasa, keep the faith, kingdom of God, kingdom of heaven, look to this day, love of God, O for a faith that will not shrink, relationship with God, salvation, St. Paul, The Second Coming, William Bathurst, William Butler Yeats -
The pace of nature
What do you do when you’re unable to make sense of life – when its pieces lie before you like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle with no box-top picture to help you assemble them? Are there pieces, you may wonder, that were never meant to be part of the picture you’re working on? Is there… Continue reading
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This one short life
When writer Annie Dillard was a young child, she would hide a precious penny of her own for someone else to find. She’d cradle it in the roots of a tree or a crack in the sidewalk, then with a piece of chalk she’d draw huge arrows leading up to the penny from both directions… Continue reading
Abraham Joshua Heschel, Annie Dillard, doors of perception, gaining life, Gospel of Thomas, hidden in plain sight, in a mirror dimly, Joseph Campbell, kingdom of God, kingdom of heaven, life, losing life, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, reign of God, Richard Rohr, search for truth, shortness of life, through a glass darkly, two halves of life, William Blake, wisdom of heart -
Start with compassion
“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd (Matt. 9:36).” A revolution in business is quietly taking place today, and it has the potential – if it roots and spreads – to transform the economic and social world in which we live.… Continue reading
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Sing!
“God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good” (Gen. 1:31a). Today is Trinity Sunday. It celebrates an idea Jesus never taught; that wasn’t mentioned in scripture until fifty years or more after his resurrection; that took another 300 years of debate and coalition building to become doctrine; that wasn’t observed… Continue reading
a slight sound at evening, Aldous Huxley, As You Like It, books in running brooks, creation, doctrine, Duke Senior, God in three persons, God's first scripture, good in everything, Holy Trinity, Leaves of Grass, music of the spheres, persona, sermons in stone, Shakespeare, sing a song, The Carpenters, Thomas Merton, Thoreau, tongues in trees, Trinity Sunday, Walt Whitman -
On a confirmation Sunday
“More than at any other time in history,” Woody Allen said in a commencement address years ago, from a viewpoint that was typically his own, “mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.” Sometimes a choice… Continue reading
The Sauntering Pilgrim 