Don’t see Jesus here… I often hear people speak of Jesus as if he is some kind of marshmallow treat – soft and squishy with no nutritional value. Usually when I hear the name of “Jesus” in this context I get the chills, as if the person is talking about someone I don’t know. It is the same feeling you get when you hear a person speak about someone you love as if they know him intimately, when really they... Read more

Yes, this fish exists… Who is there like you, the God who removes guilt and pardons sin … You will cast into the depths of the sea all our sins. – Micah 7: 19-20 In college I went to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. I am not much of a history buff so I thought I would be bored, but I ended up being drawn in by the deep sea exhibit. As I wandered through the... Read more

This video has been making the rounds and causing a lot of hubbub. There are a lot of bloggers out there calling Jeff Bethke, the poet, an idiot and tearing apart his argument. But I am not going to join in the fray. Jeff is touching on a sentiment that has been prowling around our culture for some time and resounds with many people and it needs to be taken seriously. There are valid reasons why this video and his point... Read more

Miner, Kentucky 1946 There is dirt beneath  God’s fingernails. He is a hard worker, knows when to work, when to rest. He mines the dark corners of my soul. At the end of a day He emerges, hands full  of blackness. I avert my eyes- though someof it is my creation. God never approaches all at once, with everything. He knows I would die, of sorrow. What is more,I am the foreman of my soul, (if I am cowardly). At times... Read more

John the Baptist As I journeyed through Advent this year I found myself with one of my favorite friends, John the Baptist. This man is a continual inspiration for me. The light of God was so tangible within him. In fact, the image of fire is so intimately connected in my mind with John the Baptist that I imagine him literally breathing fire when he preached. If I had been alive in those days I would have lived in the desert and eaten... Read more

A World of Addicts We love our habits more than our income, often more than our life.– Bertrand Russell We are all addicts. We all surrender ourselves to one thing, or many things, habitually or obsessively. Our dependencies range from the big to the small. For some people it may be TV, caffeine, an iPhone, another person, pornography, alcohol, or drugs.  Other people may have tight control on their exterior actions, but are addicted to anger, self righteous judging and other destructive patterns of... Read more

All that I have written appears to me as much straw after the things that have been revealed to me. – St. Thomas Aquinas Baby Jesus is coming. I have built a manger for him in my soul. He will have to snuggle up against the sharp, cool rocks of fear,               pride,          vanity,     anger,          and resentment. I wish I could remove the rocks, one by... Read more

A couple years ago, when I lived in Oakland, my brother came to visit. As I gave him a short tour of my studio apartment, I opened the closet and he immediately exclaimed, “What?! Look how much toilet paper you have stashed away – are you preparing for Armageddon?!” I am the kind of person who buys a backup for the backup. If I run out of toothpaste, I already have another tube in the house. When I start using... Read more

    In today’s Gospel Jesus tells a parable about the owner of a vineyard who came in search of fruit on one of his fig trees and found none. The owner tells the gardener that he has been looking for fruit on this tree for three years and has found nothing so he tells him to cut the tree down, it is useless. The gardener understands his frustration but asks the owner to wait a while before cutting it... Read more

Is it time for you to dwell in your own paneled houses while this house lies in ruins!  – Haggai 1:4 The Old Testament is filled with stories of how God’s people fall away from the Lord, lose fervor, and sometimes turn their back completely on God. This behavior is not surprising or even shocking if understood in the bigger picture of salvation history. God did not choose the Hebrew people so that they could demonstrate perfect moral behavior or... Read more