God refuses to work alone. God insists on working through human beings. So often, I wish God would agree to our cartoon image and intervene with dramatic action, lightning bolts, booming voices from the sky… Instead, he wants us to be “the body of Christ,” the hands and feet and eyes and ears that communicate (through word and deed) the love and compassion of God. This pattern goes back to Jesus. Sure, there were direct miracles, healings and walking on... Read more

I’ve come across this verse before, but it never ceases to amaze me: “Heal me, Lord, for I have sinned against you.” Psalm 41:4. It’s as if I punched a doctor in the face and broke her nose and then turned to her and said, “I’m very sorry about your nose. Also, I seem to have damaged my knuckles in the fight. Could you stitch them up for me?” Our sin is ultimately a slap in God’s face. And yet... Read more

I have always thought of myself as “weak” when it came to prayer. I love words so much that reading the Bible and thinking about it comes pretty naturally, but praying has always left me impatient. I guess I just don’t usually believe that it actually makes a difference. It doesn’t seem productive. But I’ve also wanted that to change, and so after reading Paul Miller’s book on prayer, The Praying Life, (to order on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Praying-Life-Connecting-Distracting-World/dp/1600063004/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s;=books&qid;=1248979903&sr;=1-1) I decided to... Read more

I’ve always been a fan of mysteries. As a kid, I raced through Agatha Christie and Tony Hillerman and Sue Grafton. We even did those jigsaw puzzles where you could solve the mystery by the image the assembled puzzle created. Later in life, I became intrigued by mysteries that weren’t so neat and tidy, problems that could be solved with one good interrogation, one good detective. I learned that “mystery,” in the dictionary, begins with a series of definitions related... Read more

I was reminded, in reading Martin Lloyd Williams’ new book, Beauty and Brokenness, of the distinction between pity and compassion. Williams completes his book with a meditation upon compassion. It’s a buzzword of sorts these days, a word that can make me roll my eyes, even. I sometimes think it is used as a way to bypass responsibility, to overlook behavior that is hurtful to others or self-destructive. But Williams identifies this attitude as fatalism. He quotes Henri Nouwen: “We... Read more

I have been reading the Gospel of Luke in recent days, and I came across the angel Gabriel’s pronouncement to Mary: “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” I tried to imagine myself in her position, and I envisioned a big grin on my face, feeling as if Ed McMann had just knocked on my door and announced that I’d won a million dollars. I’m highly favored and the Lord is with me. What great news.... Read more

It was one of those days that I could have missed. So easily, I could have missed the first time William put something in a bucket (to this point he’s only taken things out). I could have missed Penny’s applause, “Good job, William!” I could have missed him running into the water on his short little legs, yelping with delight at the cold waves against his ankles. I could have missed Penny learning to get her summer feet and walk... Read more

Wrinkles. Sun spots. White hair. A stout waist. Flabby arms, arms my sister and I took delight in jiggling. Hers was a body I loved. When I was a child, even into adolescence, even into those years of beginning to worry about my own size and shape, even then, a part of me longed for my grandmother’s body. Her body told stories. The sun spots once were freckles gained through countless summers on the beach, the wrinkles signs of laughter,... Read more

As the name of this blog suggests, I’m interested in “Thin Places.” I’m interested in the physical spaces that feel holy, be that a mountaintop, or a cathedral, or an ancient monument. I’m even more interested in the relationships and times in life when we find ourselves in a thin place. When my mother-in-law died, her living room became a thin place, a place where heaven and earth kissed, if just for a moment. A woman told me earlier this... Read more

I have been reading through Matthew’s Gospel these past few weeks, and I came again to the Beatitudes, those puzzling and poetic words of Jesus that have been quoted through the ages. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,” caught my attention. I don’t hunger and thirst for much. Certainly not for actual food or drink, and my other needs generally are met with minimal waiting. I’m an American with enough disposable income to get what I want... Read more