“Love for the earth and love for you are having such a long conversation in my heart…” There must be more than the feeling, the experience, the answer. Are you the long longing, the inherent question, the unfulfilled desire? Are you what I am not meant to find though I seek? A door not meant… Read More Week 31: what brings meaning
The story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19:1-10 is one of my favorite stories in the Bible; it’s beautiful. This was a man no one liked. He was despised by everyone. Like all tax collectors, he was a traitor to his own people (the Jews), collecting taxes for the occupiers (the Romans), skimming off the top… Read More Week 29: what kind of follower
Jesus said, “I thirst.” I love the way the trees sway in worship. The slight breeze setting their thin trunks in motion, branches joining the chorus. If i wasn’t sitting out here on the deck tonight, I wouldn’t notice. I wouldn’t see it. I have to pay attention. What is existence without seeing? Why are… Read More Week 24: thirst
Week 21: family I took the four day weekend over Memorial Day to visit my family in PA. Hours of mask wearing in quiet airports and on half empty planes — all for my family. The first moments of reunion are always the most special (especially after an eight month gap); the first words most… Read More Week 21: family
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… Read More Week 15: seen
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… Read More Week 13: the table (part 2)
“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… Read More Week 12: the table (part 1)
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… Read More Week 11: silence
“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… Read More Week 10: you are a light
Almost two years ago, I was in Arequipa, Peru. I connected with a couple who help run a home for young Peruvians with mental and physical handicaps, most of them severe. I remember my first afternoon visiting the orphanage. Most of the individuals have severe mental handicaps. Some of them can communicate a little; many… Read More Week 6: seeing (part 2)
