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Streams in the desert
“Say to those who are of a fearful heart, ‘Be strong, do not fear! . . . For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert” (Isa. 35:4-7a). If you’re anything like me, you’re looking for some good news. Not the two minutes of it you get at the end of… Continue reading
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Choose this day
Near the end of the book of Joshua (Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18) is a passage about choices that seems particularly relevant today. It describes a transition time when, after a generation of wandering in the wilderness following their exodus from Egypt, the people of Israel began settling in Canaan, their promised land. And there Joshua challenged… Continue reading
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On choosing to live insightfully
“So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is” (Ephesians 5:17). When Alice came to a fork in her road, she asked the Cheshire Cat, “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” The Cat replied, “That depends a good deal on where you want… Continue reading
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Under the broom tree
It’s an ancient and deeply human question, as relevant today as when the psalmist put it into words three millennia ago. “When the world falls apart, what can the good hope to do” (Ps. 11:3 ICEL)? Or as Eugene Peterson paraphrased it in The Message, “The bottom’s dropped out of the country” and it seems… Continue reading
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Hearing voices
Today I confess openly what I’ve never told anyone directly, not a counselor or spiritual director, nor my ordination committee, nor Bishop Miller or any bishop, nor any church council. I came close to telling Pastor Jeff, but so far he has not spilled the beans. But today I confess to you: I hear voices.… Continue reading
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Everything has become new
You may have seen artist Charles Allan Gilbert’s depiction of an elegant young woman seated at a vanity, admiring herself in the mirror. With a slight shift of perspective, the image becomes one of a human skull. Gilbert’s art is more than a trick for our eyes or a comment on vanity. It’s also a… Continue reading
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Have you eaten from the tree?
Picture the parent, arms akimbo, confronting the young child. “Have you been eating chocolate?” The child, face covered with chocolate and a “Who, me?” expression, answers, “No, not me!” Now intensify that scene several hundred times, and imagine God calling to Adam in the garden, “Where are you?” and Adam, knowing he’d been caught, trying… Continue reading
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Raising Ebenezers
The question Nicodemus asked was only slightly different from the one you and I might have asked. “How can anyone be born after having grown old?” (John 3:4). Another version might be, “Once I’m settled in the familiar ways of the world, how can I give everything up and begin a whole new life?” Or… Continue reading
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The Sauntering Pilgrim 