This year Halloween sure looked different.  In a normal year in our neighborhood, the whole block is barricaded for a Mardi Gras-like costume extravaganza.  This year it was silent…barely a handful of trick-or-treaters.  I filled my Little Free Library full of mysteries and spooky picture books for ...

“You call me out upon the waters,
     The great unknown where feet may fail
     And there I find you in the mystery…” 
           from “Oceans” by Joel Houston, Matt Crocker and 
                                      Salomon Lighthelm of Hillsong UNITED

The practice of “The God Hunt” has changed my l...

Last week I gave you an example of one of the ways to use the God Hunt in noting and thanking God for any obviously answered prayer.  But let me give you some recent examples of the other ways.

How about any unexpected evidence of his care?  In February at a women’s church retreat, we were put in s...

How do we develop emotional and spiritual RESILIENCE, particularly in chaotic times such as these? Psychologists say that, like building muscle, it takes intentionality and practice.  They describe four core components:  building connections, fostering wellness, finding purpose, and embracing health...

God has been impressing a word on my heart since the pandemic began, and that word is RESILIENCE.  What is RESILIENCE?  What is necessary for RESILIENCE?  And how do we develop true spiritual RESILIENCE?

First a definition:  RESILIENCE is the capacity to recover from life’s difficulties.  Psycholog...

In 1997, Dave and I were a year into building a youth ministry at our former church, for kids our son’s age.  As part of our program we wanted to surround them with a community of adults and parents and use some physical challenges to echo the spiritual challenges that they would face as they came i...

As the moth that
dances to the flame,
this flame itself is winged;
a shimmering translucence
of sunlight glistening
as through miniature
stained-glass windows,
the world its chapel,
the lily stalk the altar 
it returns to time and again
to curtsy in obeisance,
measuring Nones
in nanoseconds,
unaware of how mesme...

It’s three in the afternoon,
and a gloomy pall, orange and thick,
hovers overhead as in the last days
of Pompeii.
                    An unholy eclipse,
choking and burning the eyes,
cloaks already fretful hearts
and enshrouds the mind
with thoughts that, even masked,
we will gasp for every breath.
          ...

The world is whistling,
chittering, chattering,
twittering and humming
as a barely-breeze riffles
through trees above me:
red-tipped limbs
of eucalyptus framed
by the vibrant green
of maple leaves, and
one lone insect
glowing golden,
a minuscule helicopter
shot through with sun,
rising slowly
to lift and light
on ...

Last week I mused that our political involvement should be as trees planted by living water…so what is living water?  Jesus said to the woman at the well, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”  (John ...