Last Sunday afternoon, a friend invited Bill and I to go with her to see Jamaica, Farewell, a play about a woman’s tragi-comic attempts to come to America from Jamaica. The backdrop of the play was the political unrest that took place in Jamaica after the 1980 election of socialist leader Edward Seaga. I was a newlywed during this time period, and as I watched the play, I wracked my brain trying to recall news stories about the the violence... Read more
I’ve been pondering the words of Deuteronomy 6:4-9, along with Jesus’ words in Matthew 22:36-40 emphasizing that the two greatest commandments are loving God heart, soul, and mind; and loving my neighbor as myself. My husband and I have been part of many different kinds of churches – large, small, formal, informal, focused on preaching, focused on sung and prayed worship, focused on the sacraments. As I reflect on my experience, it has occurred to me more than once since I’ve... Read more
The Jewish feast cycle and the Christian calendar each offer an on-ramp into the intersection of time and eternity. If you attend a non-denominational congregation, your church may focus primarily on Christmas and Easter along with non-holiday holidays like Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and Church Picnic Day. If you attend a liturgical congregation, you’re likely familiar with the rhythms of the Church calendar, which recounts the story of Jesus’s life through a yearly cycle of observance. If you have a Jewish background... Read more
I met Susan Jomantas at the Bible study I attend on Tuesday mornings. She has been battling a disabling autoimmune disease for years, and discovered after doing some sleuthing that one of the ingredients in a drug she uses to manage the disease has been derived from the cells of aborted babies. This information is not easily available to consumers – something Susan would like to see changed. She shared her story with me, and I am sharing it here with... Read more
The Jewish feast cycle and the Christian calendar each offer an on-ramp into the intersection of time and eternity. If you attend a non-denominational congregation, your church may focus primarily on Christmas and Easter along with non-holiday holidays like Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and Church Picnic Day. If you attend a liturgical congregation, you’re likely familiar with the rhythms of the Church calendar, which recounts the story of Jesus’s life through a yearly cycle of observance. If you have a Jewish background... Read more
The language of “seasons” in our lives is a familiar and useful, if tired, metaphor. If familiarity doesn’t breed contempt, it certainly does cause us to stop thinking about what we might really be saying when we throw it out there. When we talk about the seasons of our lives, it is a way in which we talk about life stages. Season talk typically means something like: Spring = childhood and adolescence Summer = young adulthood (to age 40 or... Read more
While every day is an intersection between time and eternity, sacred days and seasons are engraved invitations to each of us to connect without distraction to God’s Big Story. Holy days call us to move intentionally out of our right here, right now lives into a space in time that allows us to more fully savor his holy love for us. Our own “25/8” overscheduled days are not the measure of our value to him. Sacred days and seasons call... Read more
I’ve been blogging through Sue Monk Kidd’s When The Heart Waits: Spiritual Direction For Life’s Sacred Questions. The final chapter in this book about midlife’s transitions is entitled “Unfurling New Wings”. (Earlier installments in this series can be found here.) If all souls developed in cookie-cutter fashion, we would have spirituality by duplication rather than by waiting and transformation. Yet the tendency exists among Christians to want everybody to be at the same place at the same time. You know... Read more
In the last week alone, a fairly well-known Bible teacher in the Messianic community, Ligonier Ministries head RC Sproul, Jr., and the President of Southern Baptist-affiliated North Greenville University each stepped down from their leadership positions after violating their marriage vows. In the case of at least two of them, they were forced to confess after they were caught via Ashley Madison or irrefutable video evidence. Let’s face it – when you confess only after you’ve been caught, your confession has... Read more
I suppose I’d also come looking for some way to wait in my own darkness, to turn it into the kind of dark night that could incubate newness. Darkness remains deadening and nontransforming – like the tomb – unless we learn how to turn it into a creative and life-giving experience. – Sue Monk Kidd I’ve been blogging my way through Sue Monk Kidd’s book on midlife. (Earlier installments in this series can be found here.) Chapter 7, entitled “Incubating... Read more
Pilgrim's Road Trip
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