Recently I received the following poetic lament from a dear man who is in our local church. I was so deeply touched by the authentic lament my friend Forest shares, yet how hope and humility fills it as well. Read it slowly, more than once. Add your prayer to his, lamenting and grieving your own… Read More Lament of a friend
Last week, on July 8, was the 40th year anniversary of one of the greatest hope-crushing days of my life. I had just completed my first year serving with the mission group, YWAM, that I am still with. On that day in July, 1980, I was to have departed from Sea-tac airport in Seattle with… Read More Ever feel your hopes have been crushed?
With just over four months to go until the USA Presidential election, the apocalyptic language has begun. Have you seen it? It can go like this: if my party/candidate doesn’t win the election, it will be the end of the world! Or the end of civilization as we know it! Or in more religious language… Read More Will it be the end of the world if your candidate doesn’t win in November?
Weren’t the struggles of Covid-19 enough? The lockdowns, the layoffs, the careers and dreams postponed or ended. And just as the impatience for a new normal grew to a breaking point, three weeks ago in Minneapolis, Minnesota happened. George Floyd. Protests grew by the day, demands for change that are not new. And they still… Read More Trust in the slow work of God
The uncertainty of what is ahead only seems to increase. With some nations or states beginning a careful process of re-opening, planning for the last half of the year remains difficult. I was on a zoom call today (fighting the zoomed out syndrome as usual now) and virtually the whole time was developing contingency plans… Read More Questions for an Unknown Future
In many parts of the world and states in the US, lockdowns continue. And the longer it goes on, with rising death counts and rising unemployment with losses of many kinds, words are getting scarcer. Are you tired of so many words? Too many well-meaning but at times necessary Zoom and Skype calls? Too many… Read More The Lost Language of Lament with Hope
There is a new world being birthed. Can you sense it? As we move farther into the Covid-19 pandemic, carrying our griefs and pain at a variety of losses, a glimmer of hope shines. The signpost ahead reads: This too will pass and relatively soon we will emerge from a collective tunnel. But it will… Read More Needed: Midwives for the birthing of a new world
A mark of good character is to say when you are wrong. Not denying things, not pretending you are right when the rest of the world knows you are not. But like most of you, I find it so hard to admit it when I’m wrong. Ask my daughters if that is so, or my… Read More Have you admitted recently you were wrong?
It is Saturday, an in-between day. A day in the margins. For those that follow the Christian calendar, this day is called Holy Saturday. We are living today between the lament and grief of Good Friday and the praise and celebration of Easter Sunday tomorrow. And so goes our world, living with the monstrous deaths… Read More Embrace the uncertainty and lament of Holy Saturday
What a month it has been. When March started, the world was as normal as it usually is. But now as the month ends tomorrow, what a different world! Much of the world, including where I’m writing, is in lockdown. Not able to go out except for essential items, schedules postponed or cancelled. In our… Read More Crisis Contemplation
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