Today is 9-11. Images are seared into our memories. And remembering the questions: “Where were you? What did you feel? Who did you call?"Although I remember very vividly, I didn't know exactly how to answer what I felt. Because there…
I spent today on Vashon Island. Guest preacher at Burton Church. And while on Vashon, I had to stop by, and say hello to my former congregation, the sheep.They looked up, as if to say, “We haven’t seen you in…
In his book, Life of the Beloved, Henri Nouwen tells the story of Janet, “one of my friends who is quite handicapped but a wonderful, wonderful lady.”She said to me, “Henri, can you bless me?”I remember walking up to her…
Robben Island is famous. It is the South African prison where Nelson Mandela and many others were incarcerated because of their struggle to end apartheid. (Mandela served 18 of his 27 years in Robben Island). Margaret Wheatley tells this story…
I am writing this on Father’s Day. And some stories I like to (well, actually, I need to) retell, for the good of my heart. Because “the stories people tell, have a way of taking care of them... Sometimes a…
Have you heard of the Church of the Exceptional? (A non-denominational, interracial ministry devoted to ministering to the physically and mentally handicapped in the area around Rutherford County, NC.)In 1974, then Governor Jimmy Carter and Dr. Norman Vincent Peale were…
“Nothing can dim the light which shines from within.” Maya Angelou reminds us. And I say, Amen.And yet, darkness is still very real. Or maybe, it’s just that some people still don’t trust that the light is there. (Okay, maybe…
On one day in 2013, I walked across a bridge. The sun shone down from a bleached blue sky. The air was cool, but our spirits don't notice, as we stand and sing under the sign, Edmund Pettus Bridge. We…
“I wish I read your Sabbath Moment before my meeting,” my friend, a hospice chaplain, tells me. “I was just with my hospice supervisor. Her question to me, ‘What are your long term goals?’”“I wanted to laugh out loud,” she…
Have you ever thrown your hands up into the air, and shouted to no one in particular, “Enough already, I’m tired!”I have. And when these moments detonate, I scurry (on cue) down a rabbit trail of distraction, bristling and affronted,…
