words. faith. identity.
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Advent Crows – a poem
Advent Crows Cawing, keening crowsloud overhead on the bike path;inky silhouetted flockagainst deep indigo sky,twilight of Advent. Lift, turbulence, beating wings;cacophony in whorled airbecome, somehow, invitation toenvelopment in mad feathered flight,toward hidden social roost. Memory of Colville’s Seven Crowsgliding in captured stillnesstoward some opaque future,encircled viewer drawnforward in uncertain landscape, or foreboding of Cyclist and…
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Kierkegaard’s God, in the Pandemic
My column in the Christian Courier for November 2020.______________ Do you have an author you regularly return for insight and wisdom? A voice you’ve come to trust, with a gift for making sense of our lives, our world, and perhaps also for making sense of God? The Danish theologian and philosopher Søren Kierkegaard has become…
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Wishing life away?
My latest column in the Christian Courier. ______________________ There’s a temptation to wish life away—to wish that pandemic days, months, or even years would rush to oblivion. That from some bright future these mournful days would become as an Autumn mist burned away by the late morning sun. Forgotten; banished from memory. Exhaustion of online…
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Optimism vs. Hope, in a Pandemic
My latest in the Christian Courier. _________________ Where would you put yourself on the optimism/pessimism spectrum? I suppose I land just slightly on the optimistic side, though with serious bouts of pessimism thrown in now and again. Among my friends there is at least one eternal pessimist (with an astonishing capacity to see the worst…
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Grace in the Pandemic
The past weeks have been difficult and stressful for many of us, or perhaps all of us. It’s no exaggeration to say there have been sleepless nights, worries in the day, challenges in family life, and a kind of fogginess about where life is going. This is on top of the very real suffering that…
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Signing off emails in a Pandemic
In more normal days I have often wondered how I should sign off emails to friends and colleagues. Should I say: “Best regards” or “Cheers” or “Take care” or “Best wishes.” Or should I forget about a sign-off phrase and just use my name or initials. It’s a small thing, perhaps. But in these pandemic…
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Pandemic Notes 1
These difficult days of pandemic have revealed some difficult truths about our society. Over the past few weeks we have realized that vulnerable, elderly persons have often been forgotten and inadequately cared for. We have also discovered that we don’t value, or offer fair pay to those who care for the elderly in long-term care…
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(Un)Finished
My latest in the Christian Courier. ___________________ Over the past months, a few friends and acquaintances of mine have been reading Jon Acuff’s book Finish: Giving yourself the gift of done—it’s a book you will find on the “motivational” or “self-help” shelf (or would, if we still had bookstores!). Acuff has written Finish with the…
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The Missing Cup
My latest column in the Christian Courier. ___________________ TIS THE SEASON OF THE HOLIDAY coffee cup. Whether you prefer to line up at Second Cup or Starbucks, your paper cup will evoke a festive and holiday spirit. It will do so, of course, without reference to any traditional Christian teachings concerning the birth of the…
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How pastors (shouldn’t?) care…
A few thoughts on pastoral care, in my latest column in the Christian Courier. __________________ You would think that pastoral care would be a straightforward practice at this point in the church’s history. After all, we have centuries’ worth of pastoral images to work with. In Psalm 23 and the prophecy of Ezekiel we discover…
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encrusted words 