A few years ago, I created a practice that brought Lent to life for me—a new way to commemorate or practice the season. You see, for me, Lenten imagery is strikingly about the darkness and dormancy preceding Easter, like the darkness and dormancy of winter that precedes Spring. A plant goes dormant in wintertime, but it does not die. In fact, the nourishment of winter is essential to its growth. Winter is when roots are strengthened, made ready for the... Read more
“Many things occur between God and [humans] which escape the attention even of those to whom they happen.” —Abraham Joshua Heschel Consider this: If we compressed creation history down to one year, with the Big Bang occurring on January 1, Homo sapiens would not arrive until 11:59 PM on December 31st. We are but a blip in the history of this universe. To my mind, it is crazy to think God was not present in—incarnated in—our world until the last... Read more
We are in a time. Long before the pandemic, separation and polarization had come to characterize American society—the result of many factors, not least being the media-/now-social-media landscape of the past thirty years. But surely our physical separation from one another since March 2020 has accelerated divisions and suspicions. How on earth did we get here? As an “everyday theologian,” I try to wrap my head around what I see, to give contour to a problem in order to understand,... Read more
In his book Outliers: The Story of Success, author Malcolm Gladwell tells about a mid-century Pennsylvania town called Roseto.[1] In the 50s, this town was populated entirely of people who’d come from a single Italian village. A young medical doctor who came to know this Pennsylvania community was baffled by the low incidence of disease in the village—including heart disease, which at the time was rampant in the US. He arranged to have researchers study the town. They were surprised... Read more
For a period eight years ago, my dreams grew loud. I would awaken to fragments of imagery that felt important; so I started writing them down. For over a year, I gleaned volumes from my dreams. Shadowy guidance, windows into my inner world, spiritual illumination, messages from guides. Then, I grew tired. Recording and analyzing dreams requires dedication and sometimes disrupts sleep. If I’m to remember my dreams, I must force myself to scribble notes in the middle of the... Read more
These days have me remembering a book from the early 2000s that impacted me—a book about war’s devastations and seductiveness. It is called: War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning (New York: Public Affairs, 2002). The author Chris Hedges had worked for years as a war correspondent from El Salvador to Bosnia; and in this book, he recounts those wars as a survivor who was also an outsider. As he sees it, war is indescribably vile and destructive. It... Read more
In our Christmas morning lectionary reading, Mary is greeted by the angel Gabriel as “the favored one” or the blessed one, because Mary has been chosen to give birth to a son who will be a great savior to his people. Yet the story that follows is seemingly contradictory.[1] Mary becomes an unwed mother who was surely shamed within her culture. She gives birth in a barn among animals and is visited by shepherds, considered lowly members of society. In... Read more
Have you found yourself in such intense struggle you could barely find a path forward? All you could see were obstacles in your way? In Sunday’s lectionary passage, when John the Baptist says, “I am a voice crying out in the wilderness,” he is recalling a passage from Isaiah 40 when the prophet uses these same words. Isaiah spoke to Israel during a painful time of exile in Babylon. Led away as captives, they were forced out of their homeland.... Read more
{If you’d like to listen to this piece rather than read, click below on the photo/link to watch a video (~ 8 mins).} Something increasingly apparent to me in recent months is a lack of nuance in discussions of political positions or world events. Part of this is because the soundbites and snippets of social media can’t provide a full picture of what’s happening around an issue or in a certain part of the world. We feel pressed into amplifying... Read more
Arranging and sharing a Christmas playlist of the best faith-based Christmas songs in hopes they delights readers, brought me joy. I appreciated the challenge because I am picky about music, especially Christmas music! So here goes. Silent Night—Taylor Swift I begin with the inimitable Ms. Swift. Though she ranks at the top of pop artists, this song conjures her Americana days (think slide and acoustic guitar), with vocal stylings wholly Swift. “Silent Night” is among the most familiar Christmas songs,... Read more
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