It was from Matthew 11. “I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you.” This struck me. “You don’t have to go back to what is heavy and ill-fitting.” Why do so many of us assume God’s way or will is always something heavy and hard, even ill-fitting, that God wants to make martyrs of… Read More a meditation for the weary
Try. Just try. Let the world see your light. Don’t hide it under a cupped hand, afraid of what attention it might bring or what it might cost you. Give yourself the chance to shine and bring light to dark places and broken hearts. Try. Shine. Share your light with one or with the world.… Read More try
Some of us have heard it. “There’s a God-shaped hole in all of us that only God can fill.” Have you ever asked yourself: “Am I missing something? What need, want, desire, desperation, obsession, is being triggered, revealed?” We are unsettled by what is not even real. An idol isn’t real; it’s a false image… Read More the idol & the God-shaped hole
“If You are not everywhere, You are nowhere.” It is a sense both of deeper loss and even deeper homecoming—no matter what we leave or lose or walk away from, no matter how far we go, the belonging is always deeper, always further, always ahead of us. I recently told a friend, “I’m not a… Read More everywhere or nowhere
On many occasions God has already given us what we need in how he’s made us and who he’s brought into our lives. I do believe there are moments when the out-of-the-ordinary (the supernatural) breaks through, something inexplicable beyond our ability or effort. But much of the time we’re living very ordinary, natural lives (which… Read More natural & miraculous (part 2)
When faced with life decisions or everyday choices there are many simple spiritual answers: “Just pray about it. Just wait on God. Just have faith. Just trust God.” As if we have no responsibility or hard work of our own, or freedom to choose our own path. The way I see it now is that… Read More natural & miraculous (part 1)
Some summer weekend mornings I like to write a few pages with coffee in my room then move to the deck that faces the sunlight with a book of poetry hearing the birds in the background (this morning mostly sparrows and juncos dancing around in the dirt) then set down the book to watch the… Read More when God descends
There’s this ethereal place I’ve always wanted to reach but never can. Never will. A place I want to reach but cannot find. Where everything and everyone will be okay. Whole. All things and persons as they should be. All things and persons made new. For as long as I can remember I’ve longed for… Read More survival and sustenance
Though we search we’re never whole. There is always something missing. And somehow, someway, God is near in this. Christians may call it “the fall,” a product of original sin, some catastrophe unintended but fixable. If it’s this, it’s also much more than this. They say God will make it all okay, now or then,… Read More the lack
Why are we so often afraid of other voices? Do they shake our own fallible security in certain beliefs? Do they threaten an errant assurance of our own subjective truth and relative experience? Why are we so afraid of different views and opinions and interpretations? Why do we feel the need to fight tooth and… Read More other voices
a kingdom built of seeds 