One thing I despise is simple answers to questions about prayer. There is something that rings so false to me when people act like they have prayer and God all figured out. As if God could ever be "figured out." As if prayer is like some kind of cosmic slot machine. This is why I […]

I have been thinking lately about how humans use the Bible - the ancient, timeless text meant to teach us about God's redemptive plan for the universe, culminating in the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus, the Christ. I have been thinking about how we use the Bible as a weapon. I am getting […]

To say this is a fast-paced time of year is an understatement, right? Concerts, parties, decorations to be strung, stockings to be hung, people to feed, gifts to buy and wrap and give ... and sometimes return. It is too easy to lose oneself in the hustle and bustle. Too easy to think the hustle […]

"Prayer is not the place to be good, but the place to be honest." (John Coe) I don't know what has happened to us humans, but prayer these days often feels performative and kind of prissy. We are rarely honest. We try to sound better and more religious than we are. We talk to God […]

"Everything depends on how we read, on how we enter the magic circle of a text's meaning; on how we smuggle ourselves into its words, and all the texture of a text to weave its web around us." (Michael Fishbaine) May you enter the magic circle of today's Psalm, smuggle yourself into its words and […]

A brief thought or poem for the weekend, friends ... "If something comes toward you with grace and can pass through you and toward others with grace, you can trust it as the voice of God." (Richard Rohr)