Conversation Pieces
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I found myself thinking and praying this afternoon for the many participants who are currently working through Stage 2 of The Emerging Journey. And along the way I remembered a story that I shared a few years back in an online meditation for The Joshua Foundation. So here’s the balloon story, a story told for […]
We live such busy, lonely, and anxious lives. But we long to know God more deeply. The psalmist writes, “As the deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God” (Psalm 42:1-2). St. Augustine famously writes in his Confessions – “You stir […]
One saint from the early church, Clement of Alexandria (c. 150-211), defined prayer as “keeping company with God.” In this sense, Jesus invites his listeners to a prayer-ful life—life in the company of his divine community. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and anyone […]
Anne Lindbergh’s words reminded me this morning of the proclivity so many of us have forliving crowded, cluttered, and consequently, anxious lives. We have said yes to far too many projects and lunch appointments and soccer games and meetings and birthday parties. Our souls weigh heavy with an anxiety that is particular to men and […]
I recently bumped into a few friends that made me wonder about the relationship between power and friendship. Here’s the deal…
To be honest, a theme I’ve noticed in my own walk lately has been dying. Now, although it sounds silly, I must confess that even letting you in on this will make me wonder if I’ve just entered my final days…a peculiar sort of superstition. But I have heard stories of people who said, “I’m […]
In his book In Praise of Slowness, Canadian journalist Carl Honoré explores what he sees as one of the great, unchallenged assumptions of modern society—“do everything faster.” He recounts an awakening moment in his own hurried life when he was waiting for a flight home from London. While trying to pass the time by flipping […]
I was reading this morning in Richard Foster’s excellent book, Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home (HarperCollins, 1992) and came across this comparison from Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153). Bernard writes, “If then you are wise, you will show yourself rather as a reservoir than as a canal. For a canal spreads abroad water as it […]
I was doing some reading yesterday afternoon and came across a prayer from Walter Brueggemann. I thought I would share it with you all. I couldn’t help but think of Sam Gamgee’s question to Frodo in The Lord of the Rings — “What sort of tale have we fallen into?” The prayer/poem is entitled “Swept […]
One of the central surprises within the biblical testimony is the way Jesus’ life expresses God’s power and authority. In many ways, Jesus turns all 1st century understandings of authority on their head. The “but not so with you” (Luke 22:26) of his teaching and his life offended many and shocked everyone. Most who were […]
I was doing some reading this afternoon and I came across a story that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about. So I thought I would share it with you and let it do some stirring in your mind and heart. There once was an old monk, wise and holy, who lived in a […]