Last week I read Michael Hannon’s reflection on “Cancer and Divine Transcendence” and simply could not stop thinking about it, partly because it began with a story of suffering love and partly because it said something about God that I’m wrestling with. If I understand Hannon, he’s arguing that our empty platitudes in the face of suffering are due to a reductionist view of God that tries to explain pain as an experience either triggered or permitted by God, thus... Read more
He prays unceasingly who combines prayer with necessary duties and duties with prayer. Only in this way can we find it practicable to fulfill the commandment to pray always. It consists in regarding the whole of Christian existence as a single great prayer. What we are accustomed to call prayer is only a part of it. ~ Origen, On Prayer It’s amazing how many of us are tied to academia—teachers, students, parents of students, school employees, yes. But churches revolve around... Read more
I am deeply appreciative of the contributions of some powerful contemporary Christian authors (like N.T. Wright and Dallas Willard) who have refocused our attention on the meaning of salvation as a living, vibrant wholeness in the here and now, not just a one-way ticket to a beatific Bahamas in the sky by-and-by. All the worn and trite images of salvation—fire insurance, get-out-of-hell-free cards, playing harps in feathered bliss, etc.—are just that, very worn and weary. It’s no wonder evangelism has... Read more
“It is always what I have already said: always the wish that you may find patience enough in yourself to endure, and simplicity enough to believe; that you may acquire more and more confidence in that which is difficult…” ~ Rainer Maria Rilke Sometimes it seems that Christian faith is all about endurance. When I just look at Jesus, and see the self-giving God speaking eternal truth and living love, whose invitation to Life presses on me at every turn... Read more
I’ve been pondering a troublesome passage—James’ harangue about works (James 2.18-26). It’s not a passage I particularly like. It’s prickly. You can tell he has someone in mind, some shocking example of an argument when someone shirked a work of kindness or generosity and begged off with, “Well, I have faith. And that’s all that counts.” The Marthas among us, perhaps, read it with their hands on their hips and say, “Uh-huh. What did I tell you? Hellooo? Get your... Read more
This is an experiment. This is only an experiment. If this were not an experiment, you would be given further instructions. As it is, you’re on your own. **** The twirled tissues screwed up into my nostrils make it difficult to breathe, but at least my nose isn’t running anymore, down around my lips, salting them like tears, then unbearably tickling my chin until the drops plop onto my sweaty chest. I wheeze and strain, vaguely conscious of aides coming... Read more
(A Book Review) As someone who has lived in a one-mile radius for thirty years, the idea of life as journey requires some imagination. Yet the journey image, or the notion of life as pilgrimage, has a long and venerable history because it resonates with each of us, no matter the external structure of our lives. Young, undetermined, and open to endless possibilities? We wonder – where to go, in what direction to aim, what path to take…. Middle of... Read more
I’ve never seen a St. Francis statue like the one that sits in our back yard amidst the periwinkle, under the embrace of the Loving Tree. He doesn’t look anything like the one I’ve posted here. My St. Francis is a bit alarming. His super-sized hands hold a bird that, despite its stone composition, fairly shudders as though he’s about to be throttled. And Francis’ face is nothing short of mean. He scowls and squints, and his chin is lowered... Read more
Volcanoes are not a part of my world. They do not fit with bike rides, I-25 traffic, weeds in my lawn, or Safeway. They do not fit between the pages of the book I’m reading. Volcanoes and I coexist in a world of mutual ignorance. Can we each continue to pursue our realities—me with my quiet, hidden rhythms, and volcanoes, wherever they are, with their hungry, grumbly restlessness—without impinging on one another? Science, mathematics, history, and realism all tell me... Read more
“What a long way it is between knowing God and loving him!” (f. 377) Ultimately, Pascalian spirituality is about that “long way.” Pascal wrote to an audience that was full of knowing about God. A thoroughly Christianized society, shaped by the rhythms and rituals of Christian practice, trained at least nominally in Christian truth, even sharply fractured by variations in Christian doctrine—this is not a culture that needed “evangelization” as we normally think of it. But loving God? Ah, there... Read more
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