Steve

Shining Like the Sun

Steve · March 21, 2020 · Leave a Comment

What are you going to do today and how are you going to do it?

Social Distancing and Community

Steve · March 20, 2020 · 4 Comments

Dear friends, stay safe, but reach out to someone who might need you today.

Last week, my friend and musical collaborator John Caravelli and I recorded a new version of one of my older songs, “Empty Myself.” As we enter more fully into the Lenten season, it’s a song about the need to empty ourselves in order to make room for the movement of God.

Give yourself permission to slow down today. Maybe start with this short video. Grace + peace to you all during this time of fear and uncertainty.

Video harvested from the free stock video site Pixabay.

Learning to Ponder in the Age of Social Media

Steve · February 16, 2020 · 2 Comments

This originally appeared as a “Faith Perspectives” column in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on February 13, 2020.

In an age when impersonal communication happens at lightning-fast speeds and with often very little thought or time given to the responses we make other than the very first — and often the most vitriolic — thought that enters our heads, we might all be wise to consider the time-tested virtues of pondering.

Pondering is not merely thinking or daydreaming or simply observing. It’s the work of paying attention and being open, of connecting the facts of the situation with a greater sense of presence, of recognition of the small within the whole, of finding meaning and perhaps even God in the things and actions of the Earth and of our own lives. All that doesn’t come easy at a time when we can tell someone hundreds or thousands of miles away exactly what we think of their inane idea 30 seconds after they post it and ten seconds after we have formed a response in our gut and before it has spent even a fleeting moment in our conscience minds. Such willingness on our part to slow down and ponder takes intention.

Treasure in Jars of Clay: New Family Lenten Devotional

Steve · January 21, 2020 · 1 Comment

My wife, Sue, and I are pleased to announce the “birth” of a new co-creation. ‘Treasure in Jars of Clay’ is an ecumenical, 40-day family walk with Jesus through the holy season of Lent. At the center of this journey is a large jar (or maybe a bowl) around which your family can gather each day over the six weeks of lent for prayerful reflection and the chance to share with each other. Included in each time of prayer is one or two minutes of silence guided by this question: What is Jesus saying to you today?

The jar is a container into which you will place visible signs of your prayers, concerns, requests, and offerings. Anything relatively small can go into the jar, including written prayers to God, requests for forgiveness, coins (as an offering to be given away at the end of Lent), even a leaf or a small rock you might find while on a walk.

At the end of Lent, the jar can be placed somewhere in your home as a permanent reminder of your family’s commitment to a life of prayer and faith. Or, as another option, the contents of the jar can be burned as a ritual sign of your prayers rising like incense to God. Exactly what you do with your jar and its contents is up to you!