The spirit enters a wilderness and travels blindly in directions that seem to lead away from vision, away from God, away from all fulfillment and joy. It may become almost impossible to believe that this road goes anywhere at all except to a desolation full of dry bones—the ruin of all our hopes and good intentions.
MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing […]
I think of this verse from Micah 6:8 in some of my darker or confused moments: You have been told, O man, what is good, and what the Lord requires of you: Only to do the right and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God. The “walk humbly” part […]
The other day while I was mulling over how to write about my journey to the edge of the desert, I realized that another metaphor for the desert, a metaphor less frightening to me, was the word kairos. The ancient Greeks had two words for time, chronos and kairos. Chronos refers to chronological or sequential […]
What a coincident! In light of some of my recent journal entries, I happened to open up a daily prayer book for 2003 this morning and found a very timely reading. The ironic thing is that I have not opened this particular book since June. I have been reading the Church’s daily readings through the […]
Another coincidence in light of some of my recent entries? From today’s official church reading is Luke 11:9-10: And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who […]
Everyone has a bad hair day; the trick is not to have one on picture day. (Advice given to my students.)
It was too quiet, way too quiet. The two boys, a toddler of three years and a baby about to turn one next week, were in the bedroom. They were playing and giggling just a moment or two ago. Now it was quiet. Something was up. I had been a parent long enough to know […]
I happened across a web page full of quotes and started to ponder over this one: I don’t want to be rich and famous. I want to be rich and anonymous. — Anonymous My first thought was sure, I wouldn’t mind the money. Who needs the fame if it means paparazzi hounding you and your name […]
Are you holy? This question was asked by the guest speaker at a conference I attended this past weekend. No one raised their hand. The speaker went on to say that she has asked this same question for many years. No one has ever raised their hand, except for one person. The speaker asked this […]
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. — Galatians 5:22-25
That which I am, I offer to you, O Lord, for you are it entirely. — from The Book of Privy Counseling
This story just made me sick to my stomach. God help us.
At times, there is a big difference between reading scripture and hearing it. Case in point was in this Sunday’s Gospel reading from Mark 10:46-52: As Jesus was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a sizable crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus, sat by the roadside begging. On hearing that it was […]
The word mercy is one of those loaded words with many meanings and connotations. Unfortunately, the modern use of this word has tended to focus on its association with the word pity or clemency. The older meaning of mercy, the one intended in a religious or spiritual context, means so much more. A quick seach […]
Christians! Notify your face. Let others see Christ in you. — Seen on a billboard
If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it. If He had a wallet, your photo would be in it. He sends you flowers every spring. He sends you a sunrise every morning. Whenever you want to talk, He listens. He can live anywhere in the universe, but He chose your heart. Face it friend, He is crazy about you!
God didn’t promise days without pain, laughter without sorrow, sun without rain,
but He did promise strength for the day, comfort for the tears, and light for the way.
For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy. — St. Thérèse of Lisieux
A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it. — G. K. Chesterton
Anthony de Mello tells the following story in the forward of his book, Awareness: A man found an eagle’s egg and put it in a nest of a barnyard hen. The eaglet hatched with the brood of chicks and grew up with them. All his life the eagle did what the barnyard chicks did, thinking […]