Approx. read time: 1:00 min Oh Elders, I touch your venerable bark and stand in awe of your magnificence as I walk this stretch of trail. You stand today exactly where you began, not one inch off from where you stood as saplings. Your roots, invisible, hold you secure. In this quiet midday hour,… Read more »
Approx. read time: 3:25 min I live a life of what you might call itinerant poverty. Itinerant means moving from place to place, moving to where the possibilities are. The word itinerary suggests the same. Many Dustbowl era folks lived the itinerant life, under harsher, more dire conditions than I know today. Jesus lived… Read more »
Approx. read time: 3:00 min This morning, riding up the McKenzie River corridor, I look out the window at the fast-passing scenery. All I see is a wash of every imaginable shade of green. Lush green, with the river running fast, and pretty high, alongside the two-lane highway. I sense my self beginning to… Read more »
Approx. read time: 3:00 min. Lately I’ve had a hard time focusing. Like most everyone else, I get distracted with “being busy.” “Being busy” is our culture’s code for how we prove our worth, even if only to ourselves. Being busy is easy. Being focused, I discover, is a discipline. It means I must… Read more »
Approx. read time: 3:35 min. This week a U.S. Congressmember acknowledges, of the aggressions in Ukraine, that the United States essentially is at war with another nuclear superpower. “And it’s important that we win.” I was not ready to have my heart and my attention seized by this long-distance bloodbath, which now suddenly feels… Read more »
Approx. read time: 2:35 min. Today is Good Friday, the solemn celebration of the Lord’s arrest, mock trial, scourging, crucifixion, and finally, his burial. That “finally” piece feels so … final. Death—the ultimate silencing of the prophet, the troublemaker, divine Lover, the Lord. I think, today, of how Jesus was forced, like other… Read more »
Approx. read time: 2:40 min. I am thinking about Jesus. I am thinking about bread. I am thinking about wheat. I am thinking about the people of Ukraine. I am thinking about Jesus. It’s a circular thought, I notice. Coherent, complete. I think about Jesus on the night of his arrest, at table. His… Read more »
Approx. read time: 3:30 min. I never know what words, what thoughts, will emerge in the first dim moments of a new day. I awaken, check my clock, and stretch. It’s 5:20 a.m., ten minutes ahead of the alarm, which I turn off. I’m irreversibly awake. I pray the doxology, praise to Holy Trinity. … Read more »
Approx. read time: 3:30 min. In 7th grade I pretty much understood that I wasn’t into delivering the counterpunch. This was after I got dissed off the volleyball team. I don’t mean the school’s competitive team. I mean the one that formed at recess. The counsel I received? If they bully you, you bully… Read more »
Approx. read time: 2:30 min. A friend shares a phrase, which I hear differently from the way she presents it. Her phrase is, Love what’s right in front of you. Well, the word right can mean so many things. It can mean a direction, like when another friend says: Turn right at the corner. When… Read more »
Words of Advent Booster Pack
$39.99
Living as Jesus Taught
$15.00
Conformed to Christ
$18.00
Moving in God's Direction
$18.00
Words of Lent Booster Pack
$39.00
What Peacemaking Looks Like Booster Pack
$39.00
DARE TO BELIEVE, RISE UP TO ACT Choral package (2019)
$10.00