faith

February 9, 2025

Sent

The question seemed simple enough, but simple questions can quickly turn out to be not so simple. “Whom shall I send,” God asked, “and who will go for us?” The question that came to Isaiah in the temple was his call to carry God’s message to his people. I wonder what he might have felt… Continue reading

Ruminations

1 Corinthians 13, bible, call of the disciples, calling of Simon, christianity, faith, God is love, Here am I, How beautiful upon the mountains, Isaiah’s call, Martin Luther, Oscar Romero, questions of faith, reformation, send me, simple questions, speaking truth to power, the love chapter, Whom shall I send?
October 13, 2024

Swimming in life

It may be the question behind every other meaningful question we ask. One nameless man – a John Doe who could have been any one of us – put it this way when he ran up to Jesus and asked, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Mark 10:17). How do I… Continue reading

Ruminations

abundant life, Anthony de Mello, attitude of gratitude, banquet of heaven, before it’s too late, blessings and burdens, blessings of life, eternal life, faith, give thanks in all circumstances, God, Good Teacher, Gospel of Thomas, hard-knock life, heaven, Jesus, kingdom of God, now or never, Orphan Annie, perfect life, the future, the gospel, the Great Banquet, the ocean, two ocean fish
October 9, 2024

The top eight ways to hear God

I’ve often wanted to have a conversation with my twenty-something-year-old self, to share some wisdom from this end of my lifespan and to offer guidance to make his life not necessarily easier but more fulfilling. Some things I’d share, my younger self could never imagine. So I wonder about the wisdom I cannot imagine today… Continue reading

Ruminations

ask and it will be given you, Be still, bible, conscience, David Letterman, Elijah, faith, God, God’s voice, guidance, guides, hearing, hearing God, Isaac the Syrian, Jeremiah, Jesus, ladder to the Kingdom, listen, Listening, living with full attention, new covenant, prayer, silence, sound of sheer silence, spiritual disciplines, St. Benedict, teachers, test what you hear, the ear of your heart, the persistent widow, the set of the sails, Top Ten List, Wesley’s quadrilateral, Will Rogers, wisdom
August 11, 2024

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

Ruminations

bible, bread of life, broom tree, crisis, dream, Edgar A. Guest, faith, God, God’s whispers, Jeremiah, quietness, renewal, rest, Retreat, returning and rest, sabbath, sacred places, sacred time, sleep, Thoreau, trust, Wendell Berry, When Things Go Wrong, wilderness
July 14, 2024

A plumb line

“Then the Lord said, ‘See, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people’ (Amos 7:8). The plumb line God set in ancient Israel (Amos 7:7-15) – the reference point or standard that would reveal the values around which their life had been built – revealed a nation skewed so far out… Continue reading

Ruminations

Adrienne LaFrance, Amos, another way to live, christianity, Einstein, eternal life, faith, God, good and evil, Jesus, law, law of life, law of love, political structures, social structures, standard of values, Ten Commandments, The New Anarchy
May 12, 2024

The blind men and the church

Change! It’s hard to live with because it’s often painful, and when change is big and sudden, it can be very painful. And you can’t live without it because change is part of life, and to grow is to change. You can’t grow into the fullness of life tomorrow if you’re stuck living in the… Continue reading

Ruminations

change, differences, division, factions, faith, Judas, kingdom of God, Listening, Matthias, Nicodemus, relationships, six blind men, Spirit, transformative change
April 26, 2024

God and the comma

Some of the wisest advice I’ve heard came from comedienne Gracie Allen. Toward the end of her life, in her final love letter to her husband, George Burns, she wrote, “Never place a period where God has placed a comma.” After every mountaintop experience, there’s a comma and the hard return to the ordinary. And… Continue reading

Ruminations

active faith, Ethiopian eunuch, faith, George Burns, God moments, Gracie Allen, mountaintop experiences, new beginnings, new life, Philip, searching faith, spiritual nudges, stranger on the road
April 7, 2024

A Letter to Thomas

For several years, for the Sunday after Easter Day, I’ve written a letter to the disciple Thomas. Some of them I’ve made public. This is one of them. Dear Thomas — For more than forty years I’ve been trying to say something intelligible about the Resurrection, and while I always start with the risen Christ,… Continue reading

Ruminations

courage, death, death and resurrection, disbelief, doubt, doubting Thomas, faith, faith and doubt, faith without doubt, faith without question, grief, John’s gospel, Nadia Bolz-Weber, resurrection, Saint Paul, skepticism, un-resurrected world
February 25, 2024

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

Ruminations

Abraham, abundant life, aspirations, confidence, day of salvation, dreams, faith, fulfillment, God’s grace, hopes, Jesus, Michelangelo, promise, salvation, the way, Thomas Merton, visions, wilderness
February 18, 2024

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

Ruminations

agents of God, angels, change, coping with change, faith, first things first, Lent, messengers of God, purpose, spiritual wilderness, Stephen Covey, Teilhard de Chardin, temptations, testing, Thomas Merton

About Me

Rich Neal is, in no particular order, a wordsmith and graphic designer; lover of typography, books, and publishing; photographer; contemplative; saunterer; and a retired and still-active pastor. He claims neither special wisdom nor particularly deep insight into life, only occasional glimpses of what lies behind the veil along the way. He shares them here in the hope of connecting the pieces of life’s puzzle that come to him in the journey and would consider it a gift if sharing them also connected him with others who travel an unmarked path toward the same unknown end.