We’re still waving goodbye to the caravan of Baptists that came through town a few weeks ago. It was tiring and great and wonderful and a little nerve-racking to have so many folks here and so many opportunities to get involved in really great Baptist events. I realized early-on (like, last year) that, to navigate the week and emerge with what little sanity I possess still intact I was going to have to be rather selective as far as scheduling... Read more
People weren’t meant to fly. That’s what I told her when she told me there are times in the life of every human being in which we hang, suspended, between what used to be but is not anymore . . . and what will be but is not yet. It’s like a trapeze artist, she said. Part of the artist’s job is to let go of something . . . and grab hold, of course, of something else. And when... Read more
Hannah (10) and Sammy (9) and I (no comment) were driving home from church discussing a very important day this week: Mark’s (36, uh, 37!) birthday. To celebrate Mark’s birthday Tuesday, I explained, the kids and I would be making cupcakes and taking them down to cheer for Mark and the Baylor Alumni Softball Team during their game Tuesday night. We’d make enough cupcakes, I explained to Sam and Hannah, for everybody on the team to have one and celebrate... Read more
It’s a little dangerous for the preacher to get political, I know. It’s risky to speak truth to power, but the fact of the matter is, while government needs to keep itself out of institutional religion, our faith informs who we are as citizens of this country and of the world. If our faith doesn’t compel us to speak out, what will? The commuting of Scooter Libby’s sentence this week was the last straw for me. Today, on the birthday... Read more
The phrase sounds ominous to my “punitive-religion” DNA . . . makes me think of God scanning a database of all the mean things I ever said to my sister growing up. But this idea took on new and hopeful meaning for me recently. Looking around, I’ve noticed lately that quite a few of my friends are struggling with the onset of challenges related to aging. And I don’t really mean issues like gray hair (though, admittedly, this is a... Read more
My office has a back door. Whoever designed it that way, I want to publicly and officially say thanks. Since yesterday I’ve been sneaking in and out the back door in an effort to stay out of the chaos. American Baptists have taken over the building and are using all our space for their Executive Board meeting this week. There are Baptists all over the building. They are meeting for hours and hours in every conceivable nook and cranny of... Read more
History, history. It’s all around us. And by “us” I mean anybody in or near the Calvary offices this week. For weeks, committed volunteers have been mining the archives for items to display. I believe, though I am not going to try this, that an entire blog could be constructed around the amazing pieces of history carefully saved for some future viewing. And it seems that the future is now (Baptists are coming), so we are living surrounded by the... Read more
I got back into town very late last night (really, very early this morning) having heard the news that a Calvary friend was in the hospital. I knew this was urgent; though he’d been battling cancer for at least a year, we all knew he couldn’t hang on much longer. I kept thinking of the grief his wife has been bearing as she’s watched him suffer, and so I scrambled around this morning to rush to the hospital, hoping to... Read more
The Baptists are coming. I was trying to explain to Washington Post Religion reporter Michelle Boorstein exactly what that means for our city, but found I was having trouble. How do you articulate what it means when 6,000 Baptists come to town? (And who knew there was an actual Baptist flag? I kid you not.) My point exactly. In two weeks American Baptist Churches USA and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship are overlapping for their big annual and bi-annual gatherings. To... Read more
I hate that sappy platitude: home is where your heart is. Whenever I hear it I immediately think I fell asleep and somehow ended up in the final scene of Where the Heart Is, the movie adaptation of Billie Letts’ beautiful book by the same name. (I always cry. EVERY time.) The movie is a little hokey, but I love it (and, also, I secretly want to be Ashley Judd. Who doesn’t?). Recently, though, clinging to the “home is where... Read more
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