So many, many roads we travel over the course of our lifetimes. So many people and places and experiences and defining events that we may not even realize at the time are that significant, but with the perspective of years, name those moments as those which changed some things, or maybe even everything.
Minute of Grace
Welcome to today and a minute of Grace! We walk through life sometimes together, sometimes alone, and always in the presence of the Holy, the one I call God. Check back every Wednesday evening for your next Minute of Grace.
For those to whom love is a stranger
When I am willing to acknowledge my feelings first, I then have a choice. I can shrink back in fear and shake my head at how horribly wrong the world has become, or I can stand with courage in my faith and knowledge that God’s love NEVER calls forth hatred and violence against those we have judged as unworthy.
Grateful for Grace
A week and a day and Thanksgiving. Three days later, first Sunday of Advent. How did we get here from there? Someone asked me recently what I think I might be remembered for most in my years at Grace. My immediate answer? Preaching from the roof on Christmas Eve 2020.
Elections: Wesley’s perspective
There are a variety, maybe even a plethora of reasons why I’m United Methodist and will stay United Methodist and will continue to support and advocate for United Methodists and United Methodist Churches. The above quote from John Wesley’s journal is a reminder of one of those reasons.
Moments of grace and delight
I love a good noisy offering at the end of every October. I love the little girl who talks the […]
Navigating the stages; remembering our “why”
And the truth is, even when knowing that going through the stages of large transitions is what is most helpful, just like learning to run, there are times when you still fall down and end up with scabs on your knees and bruises to your ego. At least that’s my experience both with running and with life-changing decisions that affect not only your own life, but the lives of those around you for whom you care and who care for you.
Discipleship: poetry and politics
Spoken word poet, Shayne Koyczan, whose poem “Remember How We Forgot” I’m including from Youtube at the end of the […]
Coincidence?
Coinkydinks, have you had many lately? Yes, I’m talking about coincidences, but I like the other word better, it’s more […]
Trusting we are seen
It makes a difference, doesn’t it, in those crossroad moments, if we trust the “God who sees”? I think very rarely does that trust communicate as directly as literally telling us exactly which way to turn. I do however believe that trusting we are seen by the God who loves, gives us the confidence to make that decision in the nudging or urging guidance of the sacred direction we may finally choose to take.
Embracing the shelf-life
Out of all the things I don’t remember in history class, somehow I do remember Ponce de Leon’ search for the Fountain of Youth and being told it was on the island of Bimini. And actually humans have believed and searched almost since the beginning of time for something that would restore us to some former age we evidently believe was perfect. Some kind of easy fix with the promise of youth, health, and beauty forever.
The power in sharing stories
We all are in different places with our relationship with God and our faith at different times in our stories of life. Sometimes if not most times, we don’t even realize it until or unless we tell a story from a particular chapter and as we hear ourselves remembering it may occur to us where God was in the midst of everything.
New perspectives
I try and learn something new every day. Simply seems like a low bar when we’ve been given such a wonderful and complex and astounding life to live on an amazing earth.