Letting Go
Death is not a tidy process. I've answered too many 3 am pages from the hospital to know that death does not honor anyone's schedule. Death can arrive under the stark glare of fluorescent lighting and the faint whiff of…
Rebuilding after loss in Syria
"Memory is the sense of loss, and loss pulls us after it. God Himself was pulled after us into the vortex we made when we fell, or so the story goes. And while He was on earth He mended families.…
Blessed and Blessing: the Stranger among us
In the very first book of the Bible, we discover something essential about hospitality. It’s not optional. When strangers pass by Abraham and Sarah’s dwelling, Abraham quickly provides provisions, food and drink, a place to wash and stay. In Abraham’s…
Contemplation and action: who is my neighbor?
Humor me. It’s an old story and you’ve heard it a thousand times. Jesus has just finished telling his followers “You must love your God with all your heart, with all your soul, all your strength and all your mind…
Showing Up: on Four Legs or Two
Some dogs come to us; others we seek out. Pansy arrived in a pick-up truck. She had been abandoned by the side of the road near our family farm. My father-in-law picked her up and brought her home. Pansy was…
Groundhog Day
No matter what happens tomorrow, or for the rest of my life, I’m happy now, because I love you. I woke up thinking of Bill Murray. Murray starred as Phil in the 2008 movie “Groundhog Day,” portraying a self-absorbed man…
Quiet Desperation
Across our country in living rooms, basements and bars live an invisible population: The Walking Wounded and their families. For older Americans, December 7th 1941, Pearl Harbor Day, signified the electric moment of transition when the world changed. While Veteran’s…
Trust in the slow work of God
If sales of self-help books are any indication, we are a people seeking transformation. We want to be thinner, richer, cook like a five star chef and have only kids and loved ones like the ones we read about in…
Listen with the ear of your heart
As Steve Hartman of CBS News reported the story in one of his “On the Road” segments, it was a routine 911 call: Melvyn Amrine had gone out for a walk, and after 40 minutes, he hadn’t returned. Doris, his…
Plan B: Gratitude from the Ashes
Tom’s Burned Down Café is a “no shirt, no shoes, no problem” kind of place. The bar is a ramshackle assortment of tarps and tents with cheap beer in a funky/grunge environment and signs that read “We cheat the other…
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