Lord, teach me. . . .

Disinformation is more than just lying; it’s the denial and twisting of reality in order to present some                                 desired image to the rest of the world. –Will Hurd As Holy Week begins, we remember the passage from Mark’s gospel when Jesus looks around the table and tells his disciples that they will deny him. Of course, they all bluster and genuinely believe they would never deny this man they love. Never!  Jesus singles out Peter, and declares, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times” ( Mark 14:27-31 ). Peter, of course, continues to declare his fidelity, but in the end, is unable to acknowledge he knows Jesus.  And the rooster crows. . . . Every day, we boldly state how much we love Jesus, and how we will always be faithful and serve him in our daily lives.  And we walk right on by the tired, filthy...

  To light a candle is to cast a shadow. –Ursula K. LeGuin   We just changed our clocks again, maybe for the last time. (Hey, a girl can dream, right?) I am a morning person, and I found it quite jolting suddenly to get up in solid darkness, just when the early light was becoming palpable. I got to thinking about light . . . and dark . . . and shadows. Have you ever really paid attention to how a person’s shadow behaves as the day progresses? Early in the morning, a shadow is tall and strong; you can easily tell what its source is. A person, a tree—maybe a flower. Stretched and distorted, but easily identified. But by midday, it’s a different story. As the light grows strong and rises, the shadow shrinks. You can look down at your feet and not even be sure a shadow exists. I think this is how God desires us to be in our walk with the Christ. Early in our journeys, people see us . We do good things, and folks can tell who, and probably even why. But as we mature and...

  Though I often spend my life in pursuit of God, I often sense that God lies just around the next bend in the trail, just behind the next tree in the forest. I keep waling because I like where the journey has led me thus far. . . . –Philip Yancey Ever have one of those days when God seems to be playing hide-and-seek? Or showing up in really unusual places? The past year has felt that way at times, hasn’t it?  Our sanctuaries, where we experienced God, literally closed their doors for months. I think, among other things, this year of isolation and pandemic has brought some of our unintended idols into focus. Things we took for granted have been taken from us. It’s been really challenging. But at the same time, we need to realize: while our sanctuaries are lovely places to worship, God never asked us to build them. God travelled with the Israelites through the wilderness, pitched a tent and dwelt among them. That was enough for Creator God. Then God came again and dwe...

However many blessings we expect from God, his infinite liberality will always exceed all our wishes and our thoughts. –John Calvin   One of my absolute favorite writers is Henri J. M. Nouwen. This week, spend time and simply allow Nouwen’s words to speak into your heart. Listen for God’s whispers. “You are not what you do, although you do a lot. “You are not what you have collected in terms of friendships and connections, although you might have many. “You are not the popularity that you have received. You are not the success of your work. “You are not what people say about you, whether they speak well or whether they speak poorly about you. “All these things that keep you quite busy, quite occupied, and often quite preoccupied are not telling the truth about who you are. “I am here to remind you in the name of God that you are the Beloved Daughters and Sons of God, and that God says to you, “I have called you from all eternity and you are engraved from all eternit...

  Letting go doesn’t mean you stop caring.  It means you stop trying to force others to care. –Mandy Hale   We are about halfway into Lent, the 40-day period when Christians reflect on the time Jesus spent in the wilderness and his ultimate crucifixion and resurrection. Maybe you’ve chosen to make this Lent a time of quiet introspection. Or maybe you’re trying to see these forty days as a tithe of one year of your life, giving something up as a sacrifice to God. What began as largely a Catholic practice is now commonplace even among non-Christians, as people choose to give up a bad habit for a season, in hopes the change might last a lifetime. Have you thought about rethinking your attitude? That instead of giving up something for Lent, we choose to think of it as letting go ? Let go of speaking too quickly or impatiently. Let go of an old resentment or broken relationship. Let go of insisting on doing things “my way or the highway.” When we let go of things that...

  I’m somebody who constantly wants to challenge himself, evolve, and grow. Because if you don’t, you fade. You become stagnant. –CM Punk   We have been through some unpleasant times over the past four years. What should have been repeated opportunities to work together and become stronger, instead devolved into a season of juvenile behaviors, of name-calling and trying to prove how right we are, and how wrong they are—even if it means lying as we do so. It’s been harrowing, and it’s been ugly. You remember that old saying: You are what you eat ? In other words, eat healthy, become healthy. Eat junk. . . . This theory applies to so much more than food. It applies to what we read, what we watch on television, whom we follow on Facebook. If we are not careful, in our efforts to discredit others, we become as nasty, ugly and angry as the one with whom we disagree. Nothing good will ever come of such stuff. How can we become love, while preaching hatred? How can we ...

  We look into a mirror but we only see the effects of our times on ourselves—not our effects on others. –Pearl Bailey   For Christians, the season of Lent is upon us. Like many other holidays and seasons, some aspects of Lent have expanded beyond the church and splashed over into pockets of “secular culture,” as well. Pancakes and paczki and the festivities and excesses of Mardi Gras (a state holiday in Louisiana) give way to a period of forty days intended for more introspective activities such as fasting and reflection.  Traditionally, people use Lent as a time for self-improvement: we promise to give up a bad habit, such as smoking, or add a new discipline, such as daily Bible study. On our best days, this change of habit “sticks.” Perhaps we continue not to smoke, even after Lent has ended; maybe we continue to keep up on our daily devotions. For forty days, we seek to become better human beings; in “Christianese,” we draw closer to the image and likeness of ou...