The Practice of Belonging
The eternal words of the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu really help me with both the Read More
Today's Disciplines Devotion
While I was serving in a cross-racial appointment, a congregant once remarked, “I can’t tell if you are a Republican or a Democrat.” I chuckled and replied, “Can you tell I...
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Then there’s Jesus Christ, who meets us where we are and deals gently with us. Today, tomorrow, forever. Being a high priest for all and forever is no joking matter. It’s...
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Sometimes knowing your place literally means knowing where you are. Other times, it means knowing your roles and responsibilities to yourself and to others. It takes time to realize that your...
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Sometimes we’re in the right place at the right time to catch glimpses of the holy. While on a clergy retreat in the Arizona desert, I had some time to sit...
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I’ve asked “Where are you God?” and “What have you done for me lately?” before. In times of loneliness or loss or impatience, it is easy to doubt God’s presence and...
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Do you remember a time when you thought you knew everything? When you constantly felt the need to correct or criticize everything? That you knew what was going on in the...
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Years ago I remember playfully altering the words of the hymn by Judson W. Van Deventer titled “I Surrender All.” I wanted to point out the absurdity of partial commitment to...
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Jesus said some shocking things about money. I just want to put that out there in case you hadn’t run across some of his radical thoughts on the subject. For years...
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People find Jesus’ life and teaching compelling—compelling enough to cause them to leave their fishing nets at the drop of a hat (or net!), to inspire men and women to ask...
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The author of Hebrews states emphatically that God’s word is not dead and in the past. It is a soul-dividing, joint-splitting instrument that pierces the darkness of our sin and our...
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Years ago, Swiss psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross identified five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Yet long before this modern-day understanding gleaned from psychology, the psalms of lament gave...
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