Pick Up Your Cross – Mar. 3, 2023
“It took me quite awhile—years, actually—to realize that Jesus is not inviting me to be crucified. I’m just volunteering to pick up my cross and carry it. Maybe not with grace or even steadiness, moving ahead under its weight. And it’s my cross, not the cross Jesus was compelled to bear… I suspect that in […]
Tips for Travelers – Mar. 2, 2023
“One of the advantages of age, at least as I am experiencing it, is that stuff doesn’t matter nearly so much as I once thought, indeed, as I was reared to value it. Perhaps the great sin of relative affluence is the urge to hoard, to hold on tight if not to acquire more, telling […]
Walking into Exile – Mar. 1, 2023
“Exile in our own time is more than enduring strange foods and finding one’s way on unfamiliar terrain. Exile means that you are not at home. You are in a place where you do not want to be, leaving home without a change of address. More to the point, you are in a place where […]
Take Off Your Shoes – Feb. 28, 2023
“Whenever I pass the majestic mosque in my city, I find myself wishing that we would emulate our Muslim neighbors who leave their shoes at the door. We can grow almost too comfortable and easy, almost casual in our relationship with the high-voltage God whom theologian Rudolf Otto termed “a tremendous and fascinating mystery.” But […]
