March 29

Communion in the Cosmos

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Eons ago, when I was 6 years old, space exploration was very new. Apollo 8 was the first manned mission to the Moon and it entered lunar orbit on Christmas Eve, 1968. That evening, three astronauts did a live television broadcast from lunar orbit in which they showed pictures of the Earth seen from space. […]

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March 23

Being Shattered

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A few years ago I heard a song, brilliantly played by a local violinist, called “Shatter Me.” (You can watch the video by the original artist Lindsey Stirling  here.) The raw emotion of the song captured me, haunted me. I think what captured me was the idea of being “shattered.” At first glance, that doesn’t […]

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March 09

Practicing Grace

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In London in the 19th century, there were two pastors whose parishes were near each other. One of them ran an orphanage. The other one commented on how poor the condition of the children admitted to the orphanage was, but the word that got out was that he had commented on how poor the condition […]

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March 04

Being Relaxed

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A while back, I decided to treat myself to one of those salt flotation spas. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you spend an hour in a tub full of room-temperature water that is salty enough to keep you afloat. The room is darkened and basically, you just lay there, and because you […]

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February 20

Being Concerned

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These are anxious times. No one can blame us for being worried about the direction of this world when we read the headlines and hear the news. Are you worried—or are you concerned? There is a difference. Worry is ruminating over something, wringing our hands without making any progress to solve the issue. It tends to […]

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January 29

Being a “lastie”

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Remember the Parable of the Vineyard. In this story told by Jesus, the workers who are hired at the end of the day get the same amount of money as those hired in the morning. I love (and hate) this story because it grates on my sense of fairness. When I consider who I identify […]

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January 21

Being Jonah

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Fearing for their lives, the desperate sailors shouted to their gods for help and threw the cargo overboard to lighten the ship. But all this time Jonah was sound asleep down in the hold. (Jonah 1:5) We don’t often look at the story of Jonah, but what a great one. There is so much to […]

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