Yesterday, I caved. Hoisted the white flag. It all started innocent enough. I decided Friday to contribute my part to the wellness industrial complex. I went in for my second shingles shot. Outside of a bit of discomfort in my left arm, I would be fine. Ride this out. The pharmacist administering the medication[…]
Read MoreI miss your wonderful sermons, Pastor John. This was a sad but wonderful reminder that we need to make the…
There are some moments in life that level you. Force you to slow down, look in the proverbial mirror and ask some necessary questions. The first came this past week. Friday night, I and a colleague made our way to a prison, heading west, driving through the coast range. It was terribly dark, the rain[…]
Read MoreThere is still time to sign up up for our study tour to Turkey in May of 2020. It will be our most expansive tour yet, beginning in Antioch and ending in ancient Constantinople. We will travel by air, land, and sea, exploring everything from theatres to castles[…]
Read MoreLike 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[…]
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