for reflection

  • the God-questions

    the God-questions

    “It’s not brave to have answers. It’s brave to watch them get erased, obliterated, rubbed out with a half-chewed cheap eraser on the end of a #2 pencil, the kind that leaves black nasty smudges in the wake of that math formula that should have contained, as promised, a solvable [...]

     
  • why do bad things happen to good people?

    why do bad things happen to good people?

    The rain splashes against the window like tears. The past creeps in like flickering shadows and I am thinking of it again. I no longer ask why bad things happen. In retrospect, I can see how God turned what others meant for evil to good and my sin into something [...]

     
  • the artist’s rule

    the artist’s rule

    “As you make art or write, the process is a container for awareness. Everything that rises up—judgments, blocks, insights—is a reflection of the whole of your life.” Christine Valters Paintner in The Artist’s Rule I sat in the corner of my kitchen yesterday morning and spent the early hour reading, [...]

     
  • thin places

    thin places

    “Thin places,” the Celts call this space, Both seen and unseen, Where the door between the world And the next is cracked open for a moment And the light is not all on the other side. God shaped space. Holy.       Poem by Sharlande Sledge What if God [...]

     
  • it may take an earthquake…

    it may take an earthquake…

    We were driving home Sunday night, tired from an exciting day of Easter and family. Too tired to talk, I flipped the station to Public Radio. “On Being” featured an interview with an Armenian  Orthodox theologian and gardener. Krista Tippett’s voice remained calm and inquisitive, and she paved the way for [...]

     
  • through the eyes of mary

    through the eyes of mary

    I can’t help but think about how hard it was to be Mary during Jesus’ last days. Here was her baby boy, all grown up, being ridiculed and accused. Bruised, beaten, and hung on a cross. What was she thinking as she watched it happen? Maybe she was remembering when [...]

     
  • Passion

    Passion

    I’ll never forget: I was newly married, and we went on a date to see the movie on opening night, Ash Wednesday. There’s nothing hand-holding about watching The Passion of the Christ together. And there was very little popcorn-eating during that movie. Nothing romantic about it, even though the entire [...]

     
  • what j.j. abrams taught me about reading the Bible.

    what j.j. abrams taught me about reading the Bible.

    I wish I could say I read It and It all makes sense and I never have any questions. I wish I could say that I don’t see contradictions, I just see compliments and clarifications. I wish I could say that It’s crystal clear. But sometimes I read and think [...]

     
  • i wish i had her eyes…

    i wish i had her eyes…

    The pre-spring afternoon was warm, layered in pollen, and begging me to go to the beach. But instead, I sit on my couch watching the sparrow play in our front yard, with the dryer drowning out the singing birds outside. I pass the time by working my way through Ann [...]

     
  • what we really need is “nothing.”

    what we really need is “nothing.”

    Our house is quiet. Sometimes it’s a lonely “waiting for adoption” sort of quiet, but most of the time it’s a soothing quiet. And I soak it up. Just the other day, I spent nearly four hours in consecutive silence. It was heart-binding. It was immense. It was effortless. It [...]

     
  • don’t let them tame you.

    don’t let them tame you.

    There’s this conviction that’s drilling deep down within me. And it’s slow. But it’s steady. And it just sinks and settles. And this conviction is that life is a gift—an opportunity. I’m not talking about a wimpish and half-hearted fling-the-dart-towards-the-target sort of opportunity. I’m talking the Eminem “Lose Yourself” sort [...]

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