#MondaysatJesusFeet I walked past the chip aisle to reach for my triscuit box and saw her, an early-store-stocker, sitting on the floor with small plastic Pringles containers sliding on top of her. She looked up at me exasperated, “I just can’t get…
It’s when I show up at the Confession on Sunday morning empty handed that I know I’m in trouble. I’ve forgotten the quick cutting down, the self-pity binge, the explosions at bedtime. I’ve forgotten the pride because pride makes the…
How do you wrap 10 years of a messy life tight into right angles fold down the cardboard flaps and slide the tape up neat? 10 years of standing semi-circle around that altar beside Kathy Sicard, and Mary and Nick…
The baskets are stuffed, the Easter outfits laid out on the dining room floor, and the lily’s perfume fills the living room where I am sitting. Quiet. Quiet is pure gift in a clergy person’s home during Holy Week,…
Pruning, though painful, causes growth. We’ve got obstacles that need to be removed and this is where the life-long work of pruning comes in, removing the sin, scooping out the suffocating fear, redirecting the anger, having our minds renovated by…
Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace: So clothe us in your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands…
Promises are strewn throughout the Bible like buried jewels. Built on the scaffolding of God’s character, these promises prove firm… sure… trustworthy. Something you can build a life on. I mine them in the early morning hours, searching for hope. This…
(From Sunday’s sermon) Today, I’m preaching to myself and I need you to hear that. I’m preaching at the point of my present struggle. And for some reason God keeps asking this of me! My writing and my preaching is…
Today, God hung slack on a tree, Bleeding red love Hungry Shamed Alone. Today, Compassion cried bloody tears On the mob that killed it And asked forgiveness For the hand and the hammer And cried, “Father!” to stopped-up ears.…