Verbs Not Nouns - Oscar Wilde once said that if you know what you want to be, then you inevitably become it, and that is your punishment. But if you never know, then you can be anything. We are not nouns, but verbs. We are not a thing, but...
Tiny, Beautiful Things I just started reading Cheryl Strayed's Tiny Beautiful Things, and it is breaking me wide open. It is an emotional roller coaster of a read, but it is so beautiful. I told Matt, “This book is making me more...
Praying for Deliverance - Years ago, my dear friend Joe Haag, who many of you know, said to our Sunday School class about his wife Jean Ann: “There comes a time when you stop praying for healing, and you start praying for...
Last Friday evening, Matt and I had dinner at a church member’s home. The food was delightful, and the company was even better. Before we began eating our thoughtfully prepared meal, our host opened with a blessing from Kate Bowler’s...
From Dust to Dust - Yesterday was Ash Wednesday, the day we begin the Lenten season. I typically don’t care for Ash Wednesday much. It’s always been a little depressing, and as someone who’s been afraid of death since...
Silken Threads of Prayer - I’m not really sure how prayer works. Then again, is anyone? I watched an interview recently with Nadia Bolz-Weber who described prayer as a relay race, as opposed to an individual sport. Prayer, she said, is...
Why We Take Our Kids to Church - I mentioned in my sermon last Sunday a post I read about the church losing its particularity. The essential point was: because God can be found anywhere, there's no need to go to church. You can find God in...