gskohler

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, rarely used, but it...

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 experience in...

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 definition of...