A Confession

I crouched on a short wooden pier by the boat launch. Something shiny had caught my eye, something moving in the murky, shallow water. It was a fish. More accurately, the corpse of a fish. Dead, about 10 inches long, laying sideways on the surface of the water - but twirling and jerking in a …

Grief and Resilience

A meandering two-lane road leads to a small faith community that has come to mean much to me. I've served and led and worshiped alongside people I consider stalwart friends, mentors, and partners in life and ministry. There was a time when I traveled this road three times a week; 45 minutes each way, the …

I’m Going To Church

I want to tell you about some new developments in my life. I've been going to church. Odd statement, for one whose vocational life has been centered on church for over two decades now. I do church for a living. But that's the thing; I do church for a living. And one of the primary …

Every Minute Of Every Day You Are Answerable To Someone

Three places I have been this week, each powerfully expansive somewhere deep within my soul, in my body, connected with past and present, the now and the what-if. First: A Sunset. I traveled to North Carolina for two purposes: First, to deliver my mother into the arms of her sister, who she hadn't seen since …

Dreams

Of all the things to change during this sabbatical season, the most unexpected is what happens at night. For three days now, I've drifted off to sleep with the knowledge that I have no meetings or agenda awaiting come morning. I'm guessing that this empty space is being filled with my creative impulses, subconscious desires, …

Time To Be

Time. By far, time is the most precious commodity. If there's anything at all I've learned in almost 60 years, it's that nothing means as much, costs as much, or gives a better return on investment. Time to do; time to get done. Time to go; time to return. Time to talk; time to listen. …

To Confront Life In All Its Fury

December 31, 2021. We stood outside, in the shadow of a Presbyterian Church so rooted in the 1800's that it had no restroom facilities inside. The church itself was graced with light, a sight much warmer than the frigid temperature inside . For December, the weather was mild - but the wooden pews and stained …

Realign, Readjust, Reorient

My brother was in town earlier this week. Such a rare, mundane thing: lunch with my brother. But he lives a day's drive away, and it's rare that we have the opportunity to indulge in something so basic. Good conversation over somewhat decent Mexican food, seeded in advance with the history of our entire existence. …

You Can Go Home Again

Listening to Krista Tippett's On Being this week, I received the gift of a brilliant, timely grace: An introduction to Joy Harjo, U.S. Poet Laureate, crafter of words. Chasing down through the rabbit hole of background and context, I fell upon this article, quoting Harjo: ...all people have a relationship to place. Spirituality and Place …

For This Day, I Am Thankful

It is Mother's Day, in the spring of a year that feels like gauze unravelling, too quickly. There are wounds, scrapes and scars; we have been tended to by separation and isolation and the consolation of soon, of better days ahead, of eventually - but unpin the slight tension that keeps us safely wrapped, and …