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New Birth – Christmas as Catalyst for Change
I gave up New Year’s Resolutions years ago. But every year, I face the same routine of looking at my life through the lens of aging. Always. We get to midnight on New Year’s Day and by 12:01 am, I’m trying on the new year’s number with the fascination of a time traveler. How did we…
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Loving Joy
Imagine going to a new doctor and receiving this included in the instructions: “make sure you take time for yourself every day – personal time – to relax/do your favorite activity – even if only for a short period.” One of my favorite writers described this experience of being prescribed “joy”. Of having to rediscover…
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Upsetting the Apple Cart
For this transgression roots down to the very foundation of how we understand faith. How Jesus keeps widening the circle Proper 4C | Luke 7:1-10 As we return to the gospel we call Luke after several weeks in John and the last two in Acts, the lectionary drops us off in a story of Jesus’s…
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My Advent Resolution
I love both Advent and Christmas. I love preparing, anticipating, waiting for what is to come. It makes the arrival of Christmas all the sweeter. Like waiting all summer for a resolution to the cliffhanger, all year for the next book in a series, the next chance to have candy corn, peppermint mochas, or cream…
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There is no logo
It’s no surprise that we struggle with change. I freaked out a bit in the spring when McDonald’s stopped serving hot mustard for their nuggets (it really is the most redeeming part of eating chicken nuggets at all). So thank GOD they’ve brought back the mustard! Change is something we fear. But not all change is terrifying.…
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Rational response or irrational?
When we paused the movie, my 7 year-old got in her pajamas without prompting. In that moment, I thought about how I actually miss the fights. The bedtime fights. The I don’t want to put on my pajamas I hate brushing teeth And Please can’t I stay up later Fights No fights. She just does…
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This is the shift
We are shifting toward enlightenment. Not The Enlightenment, for we are leaving much of that behind. But a certain enlightened view of the world that is more than logic and rational, ideological and fearful, more than cynical and compassionate. We’re moving toward being real and being forgiving. I know this sounds pie in the sky…
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Jesus is risen! Now what?
As the candles are snuffed from our Easter liturgy and the only reminders of our celebration are the mountain of candy wrappers and plastic strips approximating grass, we go back to our lives as a return to normal, as if nothing is different. And the irony is lost on us all. We go about our…