Lord, teach me. . . .

“ What hurts you, blesses you. Darkness is your candle. The wound is the place where the light enters you .” –Rumi We are losing track of time. Day after day after day, we are told where not to go, what not to do—who we cannot visit because of the coronavirus. Some days, I feel a bit like the wild cats at the zoo, pacing back and forth, back and forth, seeming to just want to get out of this place! Who’s with me? Who’s about had enough? Put your hands down.  Now that we have acknowledged that we are all in this together, look at this season another way: If that wild cat were released from her cage, she would surely die, either from her inexperience as a wild hunter or because she posed a danger to a human who owned a gun. Being caged in, fed regularly and cared for is life-giving, even if it’s not quite the way Mother Nature intended her life to be. Can we try to see this isolation the same way? If we do not follow the guidelines of distancing, hand-washing...

Truth is the most valuable thing we have. Let us economize it. --Mark Twain Everybody seems to have their own definition of truth these days. As we continue living through this season of pandemic and weird living, we argue about most ever little thing, sometimes: ©        Should we wear a mask or not? ©        Do we need to stay six feet away from one another? ©        Should we send our children back to school or wait? ©        What about church? Is it safe to gather? To sing? Look. I have exactly one opinion, but here it is. At the end of the day, the only truth that matters—is Love. When we are deciding any issues that affect other people, our guiding directive must be Love and science. If you think the two are incompatible, think again. Love, as Jesus showed us, puts others ahead of ourselves. Wearing a mask and keeping distance show ...

God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, diseases, avalanches,  and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools. –John Muir It’s dry. My garden needs watering every single night. We haven’t had any rain—not even a drizzle—for well over a week. The thermometer soars to 90 o or higher every day. The clay in the garden cracks and splits. Dry, dry, dry. Kind of like my spirit sometimes, only the cracks don’t show. This season of pandemic has been challenging for us all. As a pastor, I feel at times like I am not doing my job, because we cannot meet in person and everything else just feels— less . We miss one another. We miss being able to stand close, and whisper, and sing together. We miss gathering round a table and sharing delicious goodies, hot coffee—and let’s admit it—the latest word of gossip. J But we need to be careful. Go slowly. If I go out and water my garden too heavily, trying to make up for all the lost rain ...

The space in which we live should be for the person we are becoming now, not for the person we were in the past.  --Marie Kondo Marie Kondo is becoming a household name. People turn to her for help de-cluttering their homes and their lives. Seems to me, society as a whole could use the Kondo touch. Kondo’s basic principle goes something like this: As you go through your clutter, hold each item in your hand. If it no longer sparks joy, get rid of it . What if we were to take this approach with our ways of thinking? Even our ways of thinking about God? What if we paused to think about some of those cherished beliefs we may have held since childhood and asked ourselves: Does this still “fit” the person I’m becoming? Have I “outgrown” this way of thinking or believing? Changing the way we think can be very, very hard—and very, very necessary. When was the last time you stepped back and asked yourself why you believe what you believe (and not just about God)? Were...