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Our hopes are too small
If you want to identify me, to know who I am, don’t bother to read my résumé. The best way to identify me is to “ask me what I’m living for, in detail, and ask me what I think is keeping me from living fully for the thing I want to live for” (Thomas Merton,… Continue reading
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In the wilderness
One of the good jokes I like to tell is memorable for two reasons: it tells a story, and it’s about sudden and unexpected change. Few things are as painful as great and sudden change, so a good way to cope is to tell a joke about it. And the more painful the change, the… Continue reading
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At the gate of the year
In the dark, uncertain days of late 1939, shortly after the outbreak of World War II, England’s King George VI wanted to encourage his nation, so in his Christmas message he read a poem, “God Knows” (also known as “The Gate of the Year”), by Minnie Louise Haskins, an almost unknown teacher at the London… Continue reading
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Out of silence, yes!
How do you make music? Some would say you do it by combining vocal or instrumental sounds, or both, to produce a pleasing form, harmony, and expression of emotion. Each Sunday at Holy Trinity we worship immersed in music that speaks to and for our hearts more deeply than mere words can do. But what… Continue reading
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The tipping point
Advent is an awkward, unsettled, ambiguous season. Retail Christmas decorations pop up as early as midsummer, and Christmas music starts filling the airwaves in November. The Hallmark Channel runs Christmas movies year-round. In churches, the urge to decorate for Christmas and sing Christmas music starts as soon as Advent begins. And in our homes, some… Continue reading
Advent, Aldersgate experience, already and not yet, baptism, Damascus Road, enlightenment, Holy Spirit, John Wesley, Letters to a Young Poet, little Lent, living the questions, Magnum Mysterium, Messiah, Rex Tremendum, Rilke, spiritual baptism, spiritual growth, St. Paul, waiting for messiah, Wittgenstein -
God in the gains and losses
Some scriptures to me are like a sweet dessert: “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and trust shall be your strength” (Isa. 30:15); “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, God’s mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning, as sure as the sunrise” (Lam. 3:22-23); “Teach… Continue reading
The Sauntering Pilgrim 