Once when I was a boy I was trying to find something — I don’t remember now what it was — but this thing ended up being right there on the table in front of me. My father laughed as he pointed it out to me and said, “If it had been a snake, it would have bitten you.” As a child, that metaphor scared me a little. What IF it had been a snake? What IF I hadn’t seen …
Category: Nature
“But some seed fell on rich soil, and produced fruit, a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold. Whoever has ears ought to hear.” (Matthew 13:9) My father’s garden wasn’t much by the standards of many gardens. It was situated on a small plot of land in the backyard of my North St. Louis home in the 1960s and early ‘70s, planted with love, passion and knowledge gleaned from the pages of Organic Gardening magazine. It sat at the back of the …
Dear friends, On this ordinary day just a few days past the American holiday of Thanksgiving, I write to share a reminder (in words and in the video below) that faith requires an ongoing commitment to this idea of Thanksgiving — to awareness and living with our eyes wide open to our blessings. Above all, to gratitude. We are called to recognize the holy when God puts it right before our eyes. It should be our life’s work to pay …
I am slowly making my way through Larry Warner’s book, “Journey with Jesus,” yet another modern (and insightful) take on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola. This past week, the theme was “reverence,” and over and over I was praying for the grace to be in awe of God. Here are a few thoughts from my journal… — Yesterday I walked the wooded path that loops around Mallard Lake near my home. I was still contemplating the theme from …
I am up early this morning in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, where we’re visiting family. It’s about 4:30 as I begin to write this and I’m facing east, watching the sky grow orange at its base and ever brighter in its further reaches. The reservoir that lies about a football field away from the porch where I sit is slowly making its way into the light. Sound is amplified by the expanse of water, so I’m hearing the world come alive …
A few weeks ago, Sue and I drove up the California coast from San Jose all the way up into Oregon. Along the way, we stood and walked and rested in the glory of God’s creation. The first half day of driving, north of San Francisco, it seemed like we were pulling into every single scenic view parking lot we encountered on the Pacific Coast Highway. We were so struck with the beauty of waves crashing into rock, so reminded …
At dusk, he walked the same paved path he walked just about every day through and around his suburban neighborhood. It was good for his health but boring. On most days he saw only the cookie cutter condos, the powerlines, and the comings and goings of the other neighbor-pilgrims who trod the same concrete. It was a long way from the land his ancestors had walked, he thought. He was Osage, somewhere deep in his bones and blood, but that …
This morning, up early and sitting on my porch, I am watching my little piece of the world recover and dry out from a beating of rain and wind and lightning last night. We needed the rain, to be sure, but the wind, thunder and lightning were there for what effect? To remind us of our smallness in the face of it all? Maybe so. A parable embedded in a storm. It’s peaceful now, the birds and squirrels noisy in …
I don’t know about you, but I could use a little wisdom. I’m sitting on my back porch this Sunday morning, enjoying the last remnants of warmer weather, relishing the chance to sit out here just a little longer before the days get colder and I have to stay inside for my time of morning coffee, reading and prayer. …
It’s easy to lose hope, and perhaps it’s even easier to place our hope in the wrong things and people. I’m not here to tell you what’s right and what’s wrong. But since the theme of this blog has always been — broadly defined — about the intersection of God in our lives, I would like to make a few observations today and then leave you with a song and prayer of hope written by one of my very close …