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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

When was the last time you received good news? Most days it feels as if the world is shouting. Headlines erupt. Feeds churn. The loudest stories are the ones meant to provoke a reaction, to pull our attention toward whatever is most urgent, most alarming, most divisive. After a while, it can seem almost naïve to look or anything kind or generous or hopeful. As if noticing goodness means we’re pretending things aren’t as hard as they are. But what if all that eruptive noise

Every era has its signature mood. Ours is agitation. People wake up already braced for the next headline, the next argument, the next moment of civic whiplash. The pace of political life has become so relentless that many Americans now live in a state of low‑grade emotional exhaustion. They’re not disengaged — far from it. They protest, they post, they argue. But beneath the activity is a quiet plea: Can life please feel normal again? Normalcy is one of the most underrated fo

Dearest Friend, You taught us the joy of the Lord, though it never kept you from sorrow, anger, or pain. You showed us that joy runs deeper than any of these — a truth we struggle to trust when we’re in the thick of them. Sorrow, anger, and pain make us afraid. They intimidate us. They stretch us to the point where we feel out of control. You taught us that joy is the ground of our connection with the One who seeks not control but participation. You taught us that God longs

For most of my lifetime there has been a steady rise in interest around spirituality—around finding some way of being in touch with our spiritual nature. Much of this has centered on discovering my spirituality. Whether drawn from an eastern tradition, a particular pattern of meditation, or the life of the local church, the question many people ask is, “What works for me?” It has become normal to compare approaches: “That works for you. This works for me.” As spirituality bec

Fear has become the tool of choice in our culture. It doesn’t matter which camp you claim, fear is the branding iron used to mark “the others.” And when fear becomes the reflexive thing we reach for, we start using it like the proverbial “hammer”—even when the problem is a screw. And we’re all getting screwed because of it. We’ve been told—loudly, repeatedly—about the “MONSTERS” on the other side. Politicians, agents, protestors, victims, aliens… take your pick. The message

Retirement has made one truth clearer to me each morning: it’s easy to describe how I live, but far harder—and far more necessary—to remember why I live. The “how” is simple enough: income, meals, errands, the small logistics that fill a day. Leaving structured ministry only shifted the scenery. The routines remained, but the deeper question rises to the surface the moment I wake… why… For years, my “why” was woven into the work—an open office door, being part of counseling