From the window of our room in our London Hotel, we could see All Souls Church, the congregation where theologian John Stott grew up and ministered for his entire life.  Stott’s father was an agnostic, but his mother was raised Lutheran and chose to take her son to this Anglican...

“They’re changing the guard at Buckingham Palace
Christopher Robin went down with Alice
A face looked out, but it wasn’t the King’s
‘He’s much too busy asigning things,’
                       ...

It’s the fear of flying that holds us down,
  tightly gripping to each other, the
who we were but are not anymore.

But oh, how much more terrifying
  to let go, to risk free-falling into
the mawing abyss of what-ifs!

We make tentative moves, small forays
  into unfamiliar...

“Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established.”    Romans 13:1 

We had a spirited debate in our Bible study before the US election.  The passage that begins with these words from...

She closes her eyes
   as if in slumber,
secure in the knowledge
   that she will not be moved.
What she has seen
   she will never tell.

Anxiety rises around the globe
   but none of it touches
the woman whose heart
   is cold—no.  Heart-less,...

It dances as it lights up the sky
cascading in rose, yellow and green
elusive as Salome with her seven veils

I’ve wanted to see it all my life
sitting up nights to no avail
scanning the horizon
but lacking the patience
to forgo sleep for long enough 

surely there will be another chance
I will...

I have a special love for Hannah in the Old Testament.  Her song on the promise of her pregnancy is the precursor to Mary’s Magnificat, and it never fails to move me.  Next month it will be 45 years since my first son was born, a full-term stillbirth.  The Lord gave me...

I dream of flying
and in my dreams
I leap and hope that wings
will turn my leaping into soaring
but legs can feel like the trunks of trees
and root me to the ground
with talons caught in solid earth

I watch the birds
take off so effortlessly
unbothered by scorching heat
or the twinges of ancient hinges
and...

In the summer
that we locked our doors against our neighbors
and crossed the street to avoid one another
I became a mermaid
the water my preferred milieu
I would swim farther and farther each day
trying to outdistance germs, disease and age 
I thought I could exist forever
in the warmth of waters
...

Anyone moving from coast to coast across America by air has no idea of the peculiarities and oddities of small towns.  Furthermore, people crossing this country by car via the interstate system give Kansas and the states of the Great Plains a bad rap.  There are definitely long...