Mark 2:13-17 speaks of the healing of purpose. Jesus invites Levi, a tax collector working for the Roman oppressors, to follow him. Levi was challenged to look at his personal and professional life from a new perspective. It has been said that a person’s calling or vocation is the intersection of her or his gifts and passions and the world’s needs and hungers. I believe that each of us has many callings – personal, professional, relational, political – and that... Read more

Mark 2:1-12 describes four men who carry their paralyzed friend up a flight of stairs, make a hole in the roof, and lower him down to see Jesus. Obstacles were in their way, but their love and faith inspired them to color outside the lines and even destroy property to help their friend. The scripture says: “When Jesus saw their faith,” he healed their friend. You can have faith on behalf of someone else. You can believe in them, pray... Read more

One of the key theological questions is: “Is God on Our Side?” Many people see God as an enemy, out to get us, punishing us with illness or using illness as a way to teach us a lesson. Others see God as the arbitrary source of health and illness. Whatever happens is God’s will – whether it is cancer or good health, heart disease or AIDS. We just have to accept whatever comes, knowing that God has a plan behind... Read more

“In the morning, while it was still very dark, Jesus went to a deserted place to pray.” No one can call Jesus a slacker. Mark describes Jesus’ day (Mark 1:21-34) as involving teaching, healing, and spending time with friends. But, in the early hours of the morning, he slips away for prayer and meditation, perhaps, pondering the immensity of universe along with his vocation as healer and teacher. Solitude can be healing. In stillness, we are renewed and refreshed. We... Read more

For the next few weeks, I will be reflecting with you on the healing stories from the Gospel of Mark. It will be an ongoing adventure, inviting you to explore your own healing journey, in light of holistic and complementary medicine, postmodern philosophy and theology, process theology, and global spirituality. I begin with the thesis that “wherever truth and healing occur, God is its source,” and that healing emerges from many factors in the divine-human call and response. We begin... Read more

I chose 41 Days initially to differentiate my view from Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Life. For Warren, all the important things in our life have been chosen by God in advance. Discipleship is coloring inside the lines, and following explicitly directions. I see life as a holy adventure in which God promotes freedom and creativity. God says to us “surprise me, do something I hadn’t fully imagined, bring something new into the world.” The adventure continues. What new thing will... Read more

God never loses anything. God’s adventure embraces and treasures us, and also the non-human world. We are forever in God’s care, for nothing that is loved is ever lost. God is the Great Soul, for whom life and death reveal an emerging evolving Love. Our loves grow with and in God now and forever. So, even though we have no clear awareness of what is to come, we can trust God’s companionship in any future we can imagine. God’s future... Read more

Life is an adventure in which there is always more to discover about ourselves and the world. Every moment reveals the divine in God’s many-faceted revelation; no moment fully reveals the divine. You are a word of God. (Eckhardt) But, God has many other words, revelations, and spiritual paths than the one you are taking. We see in a mirror dimly, as the apostle Paul notes. But, we see enough for one step at a time. We don’t need to... Read more

To live is to lose. This year, one of my dearest friends, something I’ve loved in a caring way for over forty years, died of cancer. I was stunned at the diagnosis and still struggle to imagine a world without my friend my blond, California friend Wendy. We boomers are discovering mortality, but so is everyone else. I have lived with the threat of death in family and my closest friend is living with cancer. Grief is an inevitable season... Read more

Nothing can separate us from the love of God. Love is an all-season virtue. Our love for our spouse, partner, children, and dear friends persists in health and illness, wealth and poverty. God is with us in the all the seasons of life, and we can creatively respond to God regardless of our life condition. Death is one of the greatest adventures not only because it takes us into the Unknown, but because dying is often painful and we are... Read more