Questions in the Dark
My Lenten practice this year is to notice what questions arise in the dark, either in my dreams or wakeful times. Sleep seems to filter out the trivia, and I discover what my real questions are. Some arise from worries, of course. Others involve long-forgotten incidents, odd dream encounters, and shards of conversation that I […]
How to Love
My heart sinks when I read the “new commandment” that Jesus gave to his followers: to love one another as he had loved them, because I know how far I am from that standard.* Pictures from all four gospels flood my mind: Jesus welcoming outcasts and misfits, “unclean” women and noisy children, leaders like Nicodemus and foreigners […]
Doubt and Trust
As I write this, it is still Lent, and in the locked room of my imagination Jesus is still headed towards the cross, and not yet walking through walls to join the cowering disciples who watched their hopes die along with him on the cross.* Instead of replying “He is risen, indeed” to the victorious […]
A Rising Song
The word came to me as a waking dream, right in the middle of a Lenten fast that had been hard. A sharp reminder that I have the power to sing, even in the darkness. To dance without music. To see daylight through the dark veil of war, be it within or without. The tears remind me […]