You stand between your people and a raging sea. An army chases you. The crowd shouts, demanding, panicked, angry. They wail. They accuse you. Yesterday you were their hero. Today you wonder if they might toss you in those frigid waves. You stand at the edge of a pit, looking down into deep shadows. Feline … Continue reading The Problem of the Gift
We ask hesitantly, in the dark, ashamed. We ask brazenly, shaking fists, enraged. We feel guilty. Or demanding. Or justified. We seem to think God is shocked at our why, taken by surprise. Perhaps a little miffed. But I wonder if this is true. Most of us have had experience with children asking endless whys. … Continue reading Why
Joining the Five Minute Friday writing community thanks to my friend Amy Taylor, who you can visit over here. Each Friday writers receive a prompt to write on for five minutes. A good exercise for someone like me, whose head is always full of words that seldom find their way to the screen, and whose … Continue reading Success = fear + hope
“God is good!” I said it a hundred times at least, standing in front of 160 kids at VBS. Twice each day we gathered and I led them in shouting, over and over, “God is good!” When life is unfair, God is good! When life is scary, God is good! When life is sad, God … Continue reading God Is Good, Blah, Blah
How easily we let You touch us, that night. Looking back, knowing what I know now, could I have let You? I don’t know. And yet, You would not be denied. I see you in the dim room, kneeling on the cold floor, face full of anguish. And we, bewildered, lifting our feet … Continue reading Maundy Thursday Reflections: On the washing of feet
My Lent devotional focuses this week on “temptation.” All the readings seem to emphasize one temptation in particular. Jesus didn’t really come to die for me. If I had been there, I would have never accused Him, never rejected Him. I would have been the one weeping. I would have stood aghast at the horror of … Continue reading The Greatest Lent Temptation–And Why We Must Face It
I like to think of myself as Mary, or the cleansed leper who fell at Your feet, or beloved John who left all to follow, or the adultress justified, or Lazurus even, or the woman with the flow of blood. But no. I am the innkeeper who turned You away, the nine who walked … Continue reading Ash Wednesday
I have grown used to flatness. I breathe in deep to absorb the pitying stares the careful words hands on my forehead. Breathe them in, push them down flat. Breathe in the wagging heads, tongue clucks, whispered judgments merciless assumptions. Shove them down, beat them to submit to my rage. Maybe it is … Continue reading Paralytic (from Mark 2)
Mark gets overlooked at Christmas. Mark’s is not a good Christmas gospel. Not like Luke, the most read and quoted Christmas account, full of wonder and story and miracle. Matthew is a close second to Luke, filling in some of the gaps in the story. And John shows the coming of Christ in a loftier … Continue reading For those facing the impossible this Christmas
So Advent has begun, and we are to celebrate his coming. We are told to celebrate that he came, so long ago, into our story. We are told to celebrate that he comes now, every moment, into our lives. We are told to celebrate that he will come finally, ultimately, to set his world … Continue reading How his coming should change us
View from the Valley 