Thoreau
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On listening to the earth
It may be one of the most recognizable lines in American literature. At least it is for me. “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to 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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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
a new life, abundant life, blessing of small things, blessings of the ordinary, born again, born from above, choice, choices, Duke Elllington, Ebenezer, experiences of grace, flow of life, goodness and mercy, great visions, Holy Spirit, Isaiah’s call, life as a river, life-changing experience, life-changing experiences, marker stones, Mary Oliver, meandering in life, Nicodemus, obstacles in life, Pentecost, starting over, The River, Thoreau -
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
