Like an itch that keeps coming back, I have lived with a certain restlessness most of my life. Is it the nature of people, or is it me? I read verses like Proverbs 27:8 (“Like a bird wandering from its nest, so a man wandering from his place”) and find common ground. It’s not as[…]
Read MoreIn the quiet of the morning, my hope (like yours perhaps) is to hear a word from God. God always has the first word. Must have the first word. Prayer is simply answering speech–though we often get it backward, insisting we have the first word of the day. Scripture’s task, as Eugene Peterson writes, is[…]
Read MoreLike most of you, I find rejection both painful and disorienting. Acceptance is life-giving. You’re ready to call your friends and throw a party. Rejection, on the other hand, can suck the life out of you. It’s easy to turn in and turn away. This, I am learning, is part of the process of getting[…]
Read MoreBefore beginning class this morning, I asked these Nepalese students—most of whom are pastors—to tell me some of the daily challenges they face. In a Communist country where Hindus and Buddhists make up most of the population (and followers of Jesus make up approximately one percent), it can’t be easy. Here were some of their[…]
Read MoreIn the stifling heat, I set out today to visit a Buddhist temple. Buddhist temples are not hard to find in Kathmandu. They dot the landscape of most high places. Religion is everywhere you look. Hinduism and Buddhism have filled the city with their idols. Up the steps I walk, passing the vendors, the[…]
Read MorePart of what enables one to endure the thirty-three hours of travel time to Kathmandu—the hour wait on the tarmac before takeoff, the airport locator that can’t find your ticket, the mind-numbing experience of sitting for hours in a crowded airport, the endless security checks, sitting in the aisle seat next to people with small[…]
Read MoreGreat retreat to Psalm 139. One could also go back to Ecclesiastes and reflect on how Solomon, purportedly the…
Three summer reads, up here in the Washington wilderness, have given me a better sense of where our culture is today— –The Second Mountain, David Books –How to Survive the Apocalypse, Robert Joustra –Suicide of the West, Jonah Goldberg None have been easy reads, but then, a steady diet of daily news and social media[…]
Read MoreOK--ordered the book. From your synopsis, the challenge appears to be not just knowing what is happening but incorporating it…
I set a goal on January 1 to write a new post every Friday. Time up here on the river tends to break routine. The truth of the matter is that it is easy to get distracted by the beauty. But sometimes one simply gets stuck. Anne Lamont, in her witty Bird By Bird, likens[…]
Read MoreYes, you are far along simply by asking the questions.
Sometimes I finish reading something that makes me jump out of my socks. But not today. I am still processing Arthur Brooks’ article in the latest Atlantic, “Your Professional Decline is Coming (Much) Sooner Than You Think.” It’s a candid look at degeneration. Why do I read this stuff? Who likes to read about the[…]
Read MoreSounds as if you are relaxing into whatever God has for you and less in searching for it. Stay…
Writer Michael McGirr speaks of summer as the silent season, where an extravagant slumber on a hot afternoon offers the luxurious expanse of wasted time. Yesterday afternoon, amidst a stunning sky of blue, the occasional wandering clouds, and a southern breeze that conducted the chimes to make their music—I slept. Up here in the wilderness,[…]
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