All Posts

We can either be told what to think or we can think. Can’t really be both ways. We live in a time when waiting, considering, imagining, exploring and weighing are all being set aside for having and having now. Just think about the word “ponder.” The words in my last sentence – wait, consider, imagine, explore, weigh – they’re all in that word “ponder.” When we ponder, we allow ourselves the time to dig deeply into something. It is an old word, ra

Douglas Adams, in “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” told us that “the knack to flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.” It’s a beautiful comic line, of course — delightfully absurd. But like all good humor, it hides a truth. It’s a truth about how we can move through the world. Truth about wisdom and about faith. There is a way of living that feels very much like missing the ground — a way of moving lightly, freely, that utilizes the gravity we

Psalm 3 strikes me as a psalm about sleep. Not enemies, not danger, not betrayal — sleep. In the middle of David’s crisis, surrounded by voices that want him undone, the psalm turns on one quiet line: “I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the Lord sustains me.” It’s the simplest sentence in the psalm, and the most profound. Because sleep is the full measure of trust. Sleep is what happens when a person stops pretending to fix their life. Years ago, I came up with a simple d

I’ve made a habit, over many years now, of reading people who care deeply about the question of God but do not believe in Him. Some are angry, some curious, some wounded, some simply unconvinced. I sit with their arguments the way one sits with a meal of food they’ve never tasted — not to reject it, but to discover other parts of the world. I do this because I want to hear how others make sense of life. Their perspectives don’t threaten my faith; they refine it. They force m

“Do not be afraid.” The first words said when God shows up, especially when the messengers of God show up. There’s a reason for that. Fear is what happens when we mistake human noise for ultimate authority. The world’s turmoil, the production of anxiety, the raging, the rising pressure causes us to be afraid, but it prompts God to laugh. How weird is that? Psalm 2 says God laughs at all this. Not in a derisive way as if this is entertai

Lately, I’ve been thinking about Martin Rinkart — the pastor from the 1600s who lived through war, plague, famine, fire, and personal loss, yet somehow wrote the hymn “Now Thank We All Our God.” His life reminds me that gratitude is an instrument of resilience. When it grows during turmoil, transition, or trauma — especially when the continual presence of God meets us again and again — we find ourselves able to endure. There’s an old story that he first wrote the words of th

Downsizing/Uprising We met a couple from Botswana while we lived in Dún Laoghaire, Ireland. That’s just interesting, isn’t it? But what I’m going to share is how they moved from a two‑bedroom apartment to one of the suites in our building called Niche Living. The typical suite there is 183 square feet. If a normal two‑bedroom apartment runs 850+ square feet, you can imagine the shift they had to make. Beckie and I showed up with clothes. These folks showed up with decisions

These last few days of blog posts have been an attempt to understand the strength and demands of being intimate. I remember reading an author who challenged the idea of group intimacy. It made sense to me. He said, I can be personal with a number of people, I can be close with a few people but I am intimate with only one person. That makes sense, right? So, what I’ve been exploring is the courage involved in the creation of relationships with others. In the process, we may fi

Some time back a video version of the Bible was produced called The Visual Bible. Each Gospel was presented verbatim, word for word, with the verse numbers quietly ticking in the corner of the screen. When the Gospel of Matthew came out, it received a harsh criticism — and it didn’t come from non‑believers. It came from Christians. They complained that Jesus “smiled too much.” What does that say about us? One thing it suggests is that many Christians don’t like Jesus to be

As I wrote on the first day, I walk early in the morning, starting in the dark and walking into dawn. I like to take different paths, discovering new ones. They always start from the same place, and they always begin where things are not clear but still familiar. Gradually, I find my way. The other end of my walks is always in the light of a new day, and I’m returning home. Those parts are again the most recognizable and easily navigated. One thing I’ve discovered in Souther

Yesterday I wrote about the courage it takes to greet someone we don’t know — that small but radical act of stepping toward connection rather than away from it. Today I’m thinking about how difficult that step has become in our culture. We live in a world that is quietly training us to retreat: to keep our heads down, our earbuds in, our circles small, our hearts guarded. The drift is toward separation. But the life of faith has always moved in the opposite direction. God ca

Over the next four days I’d like to explore the idea of intimacy in Spiritual Formation. So, each day this week, I’ll post a blog that touches on how God calls us into developing courage to become more intimate with each other and with him. I’m starting this today with some thoughts about saying, “Hello.” Greeting While I was in Ireland I made a practice of saying, “Hello,” or “Good morning,” to the people I pass. Some of you know that I walk early in the morning and hav

About a mile from our home in Dún Laoghaire is a swimming area called the Forty‑Foot. No one really knows why it’s called that. Theories abound—depth of the water, height of the rocks, width of the old road—but the name remains a mystery. What isn’t mysterious is the practice: a cold plunge straight into the Irish Sea. I’ve made a habit of doing it three mornings a week, usually around six. It wakes me in a way nothing else does. The walk there has become its own kind of lit

Who do you think loses when someone focuses on enemies rather than solutions? Aaron Burr didn’t begin life as a villain. He began with ambition, talent, intelligence, and a genuine desire to shape the young nation. But somewhere along the way, Alexander Hamilton became the gravitational center of his imagination. Slowly, Hamilton became the center of his emotional universe. Burr stopped pursuing his own purpose and started pursuing a rival. And when our enemy becomes our f

What if the point was fun? It sounds almost irresponsible to ask it. There’s so much damage in the world, so much scrambling for control, so much effort spent trying to make things work the way I want them to work. People push and maneuver and exhaust themselves just to get their way—or to get others out of their way. In a world like that, “fun” feels like the wrong idea. Almost inappropriate. But still… what if the point was fun? What if God’s impulse in creation was somet

A long, long time ago, I learned that when evil gets quiet—especially after something seems to have tripped it up—that is when I need to be most watchful. Evil’s greatest weapon is separation, the slow work of isolating people. Its greatest weakness is the moment its own loneliness is exposed. Evil desires no contact, no relationship, no depth, no agreement. It is only for itself. So when something goes against evil, when those it has trained to see themselves as disconnected

We haven’t been all over the world, but we’ve been in places I’d only heard about — places as beautiful and inviting as we hoped. What has struck me most is how similar we all are. A group of teenage boys pushing and joking; two girls laughing over something on a phone; an elderly couple walking hand‑in‑hand; a businessman striding with purpose; a young woman running for the train. I could see these people in any city of my life. Whatever the language, skin shade, or country

In our time away I’ve rediscovered the quiet gift of stumbling upon. It’s such a simple grace when you admit you don’t know and stay open to whatever appears. You stand at a crossroads, look down a street, and say, “That looks interesting,” and off you go. Or you notice two promising directions and tell yourself, “We’ll come back to that one,” even though you know you might not. Sometimes the first path captures you so completely that you never return to the second. Your feet

Finding peace seems to be one of the fundamental goals of humanity. Whether it is at the end of the day or as a way of life people seek peace. Some do it by closing down in their home, or reading a good book, listening to music, writing their thoughts in a journal. Some seek it by fighting against something – stopping war, hunger, disease, poverty. Some do it through exertion – working out in a gym, or joining a game, or challenging themselves with puzzles. Some do it in a pu

One of the added enjoyments of beginning retirement with an adventure is the number of friends and family who have come to join us here. Their visits have brought a kind of doubled joy — the sharing of experiences as well as the chance to show them the “why.” Why we’re loving this area, this country, this time of life. Why the experience of different has settled so deeply into us. And people get it. They walk into the difference with us, and something in them relaxes. At leas