"Prayer is language used in personal relation to God. It gives utterance to what we sense or want or respond to before God. God speaks to us; our answers are our prayers. The answers are not always articulate: silence, sighs, groaning -- these also constitute responses. The answers are not always positive: anger, skepticism, curses […]

"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 […]

The great Swiss theologian Karl Barth said, "To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world." I wish I actually believed that. Because if I did, I would never unclasp my hands. I am just being honest here. My heart jumps at the sentiment of Barth's […]

"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 […]

The great pastor and theologian, Eugene Peterson, said: "God hears anything we whisper or shout, say or sing. Right words and correct forms are not prerequisite to a heavenly audience. God is not fastidious in these matters." Thank God, right? Prayer can be any form of utterance we throw out into the universe. God is […]

A brief thought or poem for the weekend, friends ... Pamela Greenberg's beautiful translation of the Psalms leaves me speechless. Her version of part of Psalm 27 lives in my heart these days: Don't give me over to the breath of my fears. For distortions in the name of truth, they breathe out visions of […]