What Solitude Teaches The difference between alone and lonely The delights of inner dialogue Where to find your angle of repose How to listen into silence And hear the Spirit speak A quiet kind of courage The joy of uninterrupted reading Or using up all the hot water The pleasures of puttering The comforts of […]

In honor of my friend Randy Reese, whose too-short life is being celebrated today, some words from one of my favorite friends I've never met: "One life on this earth is all that we get, whether it is enough or not enough, and the obvious conclusion would seem to be that at the very least […]

King David writes in Psalm 90, "O God, teach us to live well! Teach us to live wisely and well."  I have been pondering that plea lately. Here's what I've noticed: I am incredibly distracted! I know I have written about this before, but guess what? I haven't solved the problem. I have so many […]

"Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch  and the blood boils with hate and […]

I've been thinking a lot lately about how people who follow Jesus are called to treat "the other"  ... immigrants, ... refugees, people who look different from us. The political language around this concept can be downright frightening. And it is easy to get confused. But the Scriptures aren't confusing. Listen to what Barbara Brown […]

"When people wanted (Jesus) to tell them what God's realm was like, he told them stories of their own lives. When people wanted (Jesus) to tell them God's truth about something, he asked them what they thought. With all kinds of opportunities to tell people what to think, he told them what to do instead. […]