One day during Advent, I found myself sitting in my bathrobe, in my living room where I could see the front of the house, afraid to leave in case porch pirates were tempted by the stack of Christmas boxes on my  porch.  Mostly full of worthless trinkets of gifts that I send to my extended family, th...

On an early morning during Thanksgiving week, we wove into our London vacation a photo shoot for all of our Christmas cards.  It was one of those perfect days: no fog, no rain, slightly nippy but not frigid.  We managed to get everyone dressed and made up, and we congenially wended our way to the co...

Regent Street in London is like Fifth Avenue in New York or Michigan Ave. in Chicago.  During the whole week of Black Friday, it is full of teeming hordes of shoppers, shoulder to shoulder, shopping bag to shopping bag.  And all of the human crush takes place under spectacularly lighted displays of ...

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 church.  Built in La...

“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,’
                                                                 Says Alice.”
                                                     A.A....

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 territory, scrabbling
like crab...

“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 Paul’s letter to the church in Rome was brought...

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,
eyes blind to the plight
   of the poor,

frozen in time,
   an a...

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 find myself...

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 Hannah’s song when I was recov...