To tie in to yesterday’s post about how God gives us everything for our enjoyment … These two quotes from the ancient mystic Julian of Norwich: “The greatest honor we can give to God is to live gladly because of the knowledge of his love.” And … “What God most wants is to see you […]

So, I am working on a teaching for Sunday about contentment and generosity. And I stumbled across a word I don’t find often in the Bible; a word I don’t think many of us equate with God. But there it is … right there in the closing passages of Paul’s first letter to Timothy: “Command […]

After a two full weeks of not feeling well, and a full weekend of serving, I am so happy to be taking off for a 5-day trip to see my kids. That makes my soul happy. I won’t be posting to my blog while I am gone. I am just going to focus on the […]

I am a strong proponent of honest prayer. I really have no time for pretending I am more holy, more pious, more cleaned up than I actually am. Too much pretending exhausts me. And I believe that prayer is one of the primary places in our lives with God where we are deeply tempted to […]

"When I reach the world to come, God will not ask me why I wasn't more like Moses. He will ask me why I wasn't more like Zusya." (early Hasidic leader, Rabbi Zusya)

I am thoughtful this week about the idea that most of human unhappiness stems from within. We are unhappy, many of us, with ourselves. I often wonder what kind of energy might be freed up in the human soul if we simply were done disliking ourselves, berating ourselves, wishing we were someone else. This is […]