• The perfect length of beard

    The perfect length of beard

    The pursuit of the perfect beard is a false expectation. How we deal with self-sabotage and perfectionism, however, is the real work.

  • Fireworks are never personal

    Fireworks are never personal

    Fireworks are the definition of public displays. Explosions of sound and light, fire and power. A violent eruption to the mundane.

  • What’s our work here?

    What’s our work here?

    In their desire to keep things as they are, the townspeople struggle with the opportunity Jesus offers them: to make a new normal.

  • Home again?—for Proper 9B

    Home again?—for Proper 9B

    Going home can be a kind of strained time travel. The past and present collide and people think we must always be the same. Always.

  • Home—everything always changes

    Home—everything always changes

    We need to not only accept change, but the feeling that sometimes rejects it—there is something at war in us that time always exacerbates.

  • Between Proper 8 + 9 (Year B)

    Between Proper 8 + 9 (Year B)

    As we prepare to focus on Jesus’s return home, we should keep in mind just how famous Jesus has already become and why.

  • Our own healing hands

    Our own healing hands

    The most difficult part of this week’s gospel isn’t the healings Jesus makes possible so much as what the healings mean for us.

  • I ordered the usual

    I ordered the usual

    On a trip to the campus bookstore on the last day of residency, I rush to get clothes and coffee before our final workshop starts.