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Week 18: life, death, and legacy (in “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”)
Someone recently asked me: “What do you want your legacy to be? How do you want to leave your mark upon the world?” I was a little caught off guard. I’d never really been asked that question, and I’ve honestly never pondered it very extensively. I just read (or rather, listened to) “The Death of Continue reading
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Week 17: “all about the dude”
“I thought it was all about the f*cking dude?” “It should be,” I replied. This passing comment had followed an initial question: “Do churches fight with each other?” “Mmm, not usually. But sometimes, yeah, churches and denominations find things to fight about.” His comment struck me. Didn’t he put the truth in the most explicit, Continue reading
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Week 16: India & AIDS
April 16, 2009. Chennai, India. I was on an “around the world” trip with my good friend that would last for over nine months. In Chennai, we were spending some time with local ministries and organizations, including one that helped local Indians who suffered from AIDS (children and adults). On this specific day, we went Continue reading
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Week 15: seen
Imagine a female slave in the 20th century B.C. who, at the command of her mistress, marries and sleeps with her mistress’s husband. Who, upon consequently conceiving his child, is then constantly oppressed by her mistress, though the slave is herself not entirely innocent in her pride. When the father of her child remains unconcerned Continue reading
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Week 14: (un)certain
In a film I recently watched, there was a quote that resonated with me, especially during this time of uncertainty. “Faith is 24 hours of doubt and one minute of hope.” For everything we give, wait and hope for in faith, perhaps we see little immediate reward. In all of the current fear, anxiety and Continue reading
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Week 13: the table (part 2)
My heart is always filled with awe and wonder on nights such as these. I only invite others—not to my table with anything I can provide—to his table, the one with the remedy for the maladies of our hearts. He who is himself the remedy. My only hope is to create a space where he Continue reading
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Week 12: the table (part 1)
“I will come back every f*cking week for the rest of my f*cking life whenever I’m in this town,” he said as he wiped tears from his face. The very best compliment I could have ever received. My new friend “T” started shedding tears as I ended the night in prayer. I had shared the Continue reading
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Week 11: silence
Stillness, silence, and waiting are acts of faith. They are a willingness to face the nothingness, the emptiness, the void. They authenticate a stark willingness to accept the possibility of hearing nothing, receiving no answers, gaining no direction. Sometimes (or often), it is silence for silence, darkness for darkness. But this is where we discover Continue reading
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Week 10: you are a light
“God doesn’t give a gift without giving an obligation to use it.” – Christian Wiman We sometimes assume that to do what we do not desire is to be right, to be the martyr. But to be what we were made to be, this is to be the true martyr, because the greatest battles of Continue reading
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Week 9: losing to find (part 2)
“Piously we produce our images of you / till they stand around you like a thousand walls. / And when our hearts would simply open, / our fervent hands hide you.” – Rilke We want control. We crave it. Many of us want to be told what to believe, how to believe, how to live, Continue reading
surely we do not mean only.”
a kingdom built of seeds 