3:45am. There is a predictable voice that reviews my failures from yesterday and the possibilities for failure in the future. It is not an assuring, loving voice. It is a voice that makes me want to sink into the foreboding feeling that “this is not going to end well”. It is an “invitation”. An invitation to parlay with an enemy. “Isn’t it reasonable to talk about what could go wrong with your life?” “Shouldn’t you be concerned?” No amount of…
It was a stunning sight walking before dawn this morning and seeing the full moon with a soft atmospheric glow around it. There are few things as beautiful on this Earth (or at least seen from this Earth). It would not be possible to recount all the songs or verse inspired by this very sight. Although the moon appeared quite different from the last time I saw it, it occurred to me that it remained absolutely the same. What had changed were…
It occurs to me that most of the people we consider exceptional did not consider themselves so. In the scriptures we read of Esther, Abraham, Peter and others who played monumental roles in saving their people, fathering nations, leading the Church. The letters they wrote, the decisions they made, the work they did, for the most part, were a series of daily challenges. Their interactions with people were much like ours. Their choices to believe what was unseen, unsafe, yet…
What suffering, what beauty Is on the Savior’s brow The thorns that grew in tended soil Grow pain and sorrow now The flowering vine once flourished, blessed Makes red the lovely face That wept in longing for his beloved And now stands in her place What beauty, what suffering Was only his to bear Embracing there the cost of love No other soul could share The gathering arms that ever reach to circle all his own Hold tightly to a…
What are the hands of God like? Are they the smooth, coddled hands of the privileged? Are they untouched? Are they working hands? The hands of Jesus grasped, with pleasure, the tools of a carpenter. They were intimately familiar with lumber that needed planing and shaping. He touched the leper – when no one else would… healing years of despair and hopelessness. His hands washed the dirty feet of disciples and lifted the little children into his lap. He was…
Life has its dormant seasons – periods devoid of either storms or pleasant breezes. These “doldrums” tempt us to imagine we are adrift and outside of God’s gaze. Physical stillness, however, is an illusion. Cells are multiplying, gases are expanding, photosynthesis is filling our lungs. Reality should provide us with an overwhelming sense of motion and activity. Our planet spins and orbits with unimaginable force (rotating at 1,040 mph at the equator while orbiting the sun at close to 67,000…