(A song David sang to Yahweh when he was dealing with Cush the Benjamite.) Here, I am, knocking at your door, Yahweh my God. Let me in! I need a safe place. I need rescuing. […]
Author: pete santucci
Pete Santucci loves creation, recreation, and procreation. He is a husband, father, follower of Jesus, and lover of community, hoppy beers & the great outdoors. Along with writing about faith and life, he’s available as a consultant/coach for individuals and churches and is also available as a speaker for churches, retreats, camps, and conferences. Feel free to contact him directly at petesantucci@icloud.com.
Psalm 5
(Worship leader: Use a soulful sax on this one. A David psalm.) I need you to hear me, Yahweh. I need you to hear me out. You’re my King, So hear my plea for help. […]
The twilight of my fathers: Eugene Peterson and my Dad
Those who know me know there are two men who have most shaped my life. They are my father, Hugo Santucci, and my mentor, Eugene Peterson. These two men have shown me what a life […]
The alliance
My family loves to play games together. And we can be fiercely competitive in our game-playing. With a fairly strategic mind, I do well much of the time. In fact, my kids have concluded that […]
The horns & the cup (or, what will you do with your power?)
The two-year-old sat in her highchair, looked at the plate of uneaten food in front of her, looked at her mother, looked back at the plate, looked back at her mother, grabbed the plate without […]
When fear makes me feel like a failure
Sometimes, I give up too easily, too quickly. Life is difficult and filled with obstacles, and sometimes I feel overwhelmed before I’ve even given things a real effort. I have a book project I’ve been […]
Bad leaders & deaf cobras
When Saddam Hussein was driven from power, the people of Iraq danced in the streets. They tore down his statues. They celebrated the end of his tyranny. Having grown up in a country with strong […]
The answer to envy
The world’s oldest profession isn’t prostitution. It’s advertising. Genesis 3 is the story of a snakish advertiser who creates a desire for something that was really nothing at the cost of everything. And we’ve been […]
Psalm 121
A rendering of Psalm 121, which finds comfort in God as the one who watches and keeps us.
Avril Lavigne & the Psalms
I remember first listening to punk-pop Avril Lavigne with her heavily mascaraed eyes singing about her skater boy and giving the finger to anyone who got in her way. There was a true passion in her, […]
Psalm 146
A rendering of Psalm 146, which considers human sources of hope before considering God’s long resumé of real hope-inspiring help.
Psalm 119 (B is for Beth)
A rendering of Psalm 119:9-16, where each verse begins with the Hebrew letter beth and delights in God’s life-giving words.
Psalm 119 (A is for Aleph)
A rendering of Psalm 119:1-8, where each verse begins with the Hebrew letter aleph and delights in God’s life-giving words.
Psalm 104
A rendering of Psalm 104, an exuberant expression of joy in the Creator and the Creation.
The only way to experience more of God
“Lord, we want more of you in our lives.” It’s a prayer I’ve heard many times and have uttered more than a few times myself. It usually precedes a time of gathered worship as a […]
5 questions to ask when our prayers get wonky
The question isn’t if my perspective is skewed or not. The question is: How bad is it? No two of us experience the world the same way. The uniquenesses in my eyes cause me to […]
Does God break his promises?
Sometimes life comes crashing down around our ears and the very things we were sure God wanted for our lives and for the world lay in rubbled ruin around us. A mission trip long prayed […]
All my fountains are in you
A surprising hymn about Israel’s ancient enemies being born in Zion.
Psalm 12
A rendering of Psalm 12, a prayer for help in the surrounding culture’s war of words.
Psalm 51
A rendering of Psalm 51, a prayer of confession that moves from a self-focus to a God-focus and a desire to see other lives repaired as well.
Psalm 62
A rendering of Psalm 62, a wisdom psalm for when the soul is weary and cutting corners has its lure.
Psalm 67
A rendering of Psalm 67, which moves us from a desire for a small, me-sized blessing to a global, God-sized blessing for all people.
Psalm 139
A rendering of Psalm 139, a prayer for when I’m so angry at the sins of others I can’t see what’s going on in my own heart and need the only one who truly sees me to show me what’s going on inside of me — so that he can lead me in the beautiful way.
When we lie to ourselves
For most of my adult life, my job has been to listen to people. As a journalist, as a pastor, as a chaplain, I’ve asked people questions and listened to what they’ve said. I’ve heard […]
Psalm 133
A rendering of Psalm 133, where the wisdom of unity brings healing and life to a broken land.
Psalm 14
A rendering of Psalm 14, rejecting the atheism of the world and the times when our own hearts slip into the atheism of living as if God doesn’t exist.
Psalm 2
A rendering of Psalm 2, a prayer in the midst of the world’s noise that turns our attention to God’s Messiah.
Psalm 3
A rendering of Psalm 3, a prayer when things feel like they’re so bad it’s hard to sleep.
Psalm 150
A rendering of Psalm 150, an exuberant call to praise God with all we have, using our most passionate music.
Separating children from their parents
During the recent and well-deserved hubbub about the government policy which separated parents from their children because of immigration issues, my friend Les Yoder posted the following comment and statistics, all of which bear repeating. […]
Psalm 4
Here’s my rendering of Psalm 4. But first a few thoughts about poetry and the difficulty of taking something several thousand years old and offering it in an American setting in 21st century English. Poetry […]
Oh, inverted world!
When the world goes upside-down, so too does our relationship with God. It’s an important but temporary shift the Psalms teach us how to navigate.
Psalm 1
Below is my rendering of Psalm 1. I’m considering including my own renderings of the Psalms in my book A User’s Guide to Having a Soul. (Here are my comments on Psalm 1.) Let me know […]
Betrayed
When the letters started circulating, my Dad didn’t know who was sending them. Their slander was anonymous, pot shots on his character taken by an unknown sniper. Eventually, he figured it out. But by then […]
The blame game
The blame game has no winners. It also has no shortage of players. Fingers are pointed. Questions are asked. But nothing is ever accomplished. The main question asked in the blame game is the “why” […]
When life slaps us across the face
I need a wake up call every now and then. Not a literal wake up call; I’ve got an alarm on my phone for that. But I need to be awakened from the soul slumber […]
The importance of words
The most dangerous weapon in the world requires no license, is accessible to almost every person you know, is used wildly without discretion, is regulated by no government, and causes damage to uncounted millions on […]
Be still
I was on the floor of our apartment, unable to get up. My lower back was clenched in spasms of pain. The agony was so great, I could hardly move. When I went to see […]
When success becomes failure
When I became a pastor, the congregation I started serving had been on a slow but steady decline for more than 40 years. There had been no mass exodus along the way, but church records […]
The great equalizer
I’ve seen so many dead bodies this past year that I’ve lost count — at least forty and among them my Mom. Death is a bad joke. It’s a riddle that confounds us all. There’s […]
You are not a number
Try to go a day without using any number. It’s almost impossible. Look at a clock, there are numbers. Cook food and you’re setting a timer. Send a letter and you’re using an address. Make […]
A joyful domination
I love the underdog. If a sports team wins too often, count on me to support any team that plays against them. I think this dislike of those on top is burned into the American […]
Good motives, bad compromises
I’m a pretty well-intentioned person and I’m guessing you are too. Our motives are almost always pointing in the right direction. We want what’s good for others and ourselves. The problem is how we get […]
A user’s guide to having a soul
I have been accustomed to call this book, I think not inappropriately, “An Anatomy of all the Parts of the Soul,” for there is not an emotion of which anyone can be conscious that is […]
The unexpected spirituality of marriage
If there’s anything the Western world is infatuated with, it’s infatuation. We love love. We are swept off our feet by romance. If we believe in anything, it’s that the greatest achievement any of us […]
Thirsty for God
The ten-mile run was under the pummeling heat of the central Oregon desert sun, some of it slowing to a hands-and-knees scramble up 45-degree inclines. Interspersed throughout the race were numerous obstacles, several of which […]
Striking the Rock
“Don’t strike the rock!” The hand-written note was taped to my desk where I would see it every day. I was pastoring a congregation going through significant change and I knew that with the pushback […]
Soulsick
Sometimes the weight of the world comes crashing down on us. And sometimes we deserve it. Sometimes, we’ve done something wrong or even a whole series of things wrong and the consequences have piled up […]
The source of goodness in a world of suffering
Evil abounds. When we look around at the world, it’s easy to ask, “Why is there so much suffering and injustice?” But when we look a bit closer, we find a question hiding beneath the […]
Worship is practical
Worship is practical. But not because preachers provide lessons on life in sermons. Worship is practical because it reorients our lives toward God. A God-orientation isn’t airy-fairy and otherworldly. If God is the most basic […]
Easter Fools Day
It’s Easter Fools Day. Not often, but sometimes Easter lands on April 1 or April Fools Day. And I think it’s wonderfully appropriate. On that first Easter Sunday 2,000 years ago, no one showed up […]
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” — 5th saying of Jesus from the cross
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? [Matthew 27:46 & Mark 15:34] There is nothing quite like the terror of a child lost in a crowd, desperately seeking her parents. There is nothing quite […]
True love loves truth
Can we stop pitting love and truth against each other? I’d much prefer a radical commitment to both.
Innocence & guilt & the only satisfaction for suffering
Where does the line between innocence and guilt lie? In some regards, we’re all complicit in this interwoven world, where a bargain buy at Target is made by sweat shop labor in Cambodia. And in […]
Shattered
I’ve broken a lot of bowls and plates and glasses and such over the years. I’ll never forget how mad my Mom got when she opened a cupboard and out tumbled a pitcher I’d put […]
Praying our social media
In the last decade, social media has gone from a novelty to a fixture in most of our lives. With the car and airplane, radio and recorded music, movies and televised entertainment, computers, and phones […]
The fraudulent saint
I’m a fraud. I’m not nearly the person I have the reputation of being. I wish I were. That’d be awesome. But I’m not. It’s not that I intentionally mislead people. It’s just that I’m […]
The necessity of plagiarism in prayer
We’re all beginners when it comes to prayer.* And hopefully we always remain amateurs in our praying, since the word “amateur” originated from the French word for “lover.” There aren’t many of us who like […]
Laws exist where love doesn’t
The only reason we need laws is because we lack love. Laws exist to protect relationships. When our relationships are robust, there’s no need for laws to protect them. But when the bonds tying people […]
The magic of technology & the dissatisfied life
The more humans have become enamored with technology, the more we’ve become enamored with magic. The two are actually the same thing: A desire to control and change our circumstances. Contrary to popular belief, the […]
Celebration & a long friendship with God
Immediate friends are a lot of fun. But long-time friendships are deep and deserve regular celebrations. When my wife threw a party for my 50th birthday, she pulled together an incredible group of people who […]
Restoring a prayerful imagination
Your imagination is the most important part of who you are. Imagination and soul are deeply integrated, giving you personality and making you unique among all humans throughout history. Without imagination, there is no “you,” there […]
The Throne
As a kid, I grew up watching the Emmy-winning TV show All in the Family. In it, the family patriarch Archie Bunker attempts to rule his household during the late 1960s and early 1970s era where […]
Living and praying as Image of God
Where does human value come from? What makes us so special? We assume the world belongs to us and is here for us to do with as we will. And so we eat whatever we […]
Psalm reading guide
Here’s a simple guide for those who are interested in reading through the book of Psalms on a monthly basis, a practice many have found enriching to their prayer lives. It’s recommended to read them […]
Yahweh
I used to be bad with names, and I was OK with it. That’s until I met Ray. Ray and I were slated to direct a middle school retreat at Lakeside Bible Camp, where we […]
Uncensored prayer
I’m a heretic. There are things I believe about God which are wrong. But they’re wrong in all the right ways. You’re a heretic, too. There are things that are true about God which are […]
The true & generous life
I don’t get to edit the Bible according to what I like or dislike. I don’t have the arrogance of Thomas Jefferson, who chucked out whatever he found primitive and unenlightened and kept the moral […]
Facing fear
Fears come in all shapes and sizes. Some fears grip us by the throat, suffocating us. Some fears climb up on our backs, weighing us down as they accumulate. But all our fears have one […]
When mountains battle (or, Worship that welcomes God)
“… And so, Lord, we welcome you in our worship today. Amen.” “That’s so wrong,” the person next to me whispered after the worship leader finished his prayer. “We don’t welcome God. God welcomes us. […]
When life gets hostile
There’s something delicious in mocking or frustrating authority. Most of our sit-coms are based on it. Dre in Black-ish is constantly being foiled by his family and by his circumstances. Michael Scott in The Office is continually […]
Prayer that gets me out of myself
“Blessed to be a blessing.” It’s a bit of a Christian cliché, but it’s true nonetheless. It gets at the heart of what God is doing in the world and of how we participate in […]
Entering into the Big Story in prayer
There are some stories other people have told me that are so vivid in my imagination, it’s as if I was there, as if those things happened to me. My wife tells a story about […]
The secret to getting the economy back on track
“It’s the economy, stupid.” Bill Clinton’s single sentence won him the presidency. George H.W. Bush had the highest approval rating of any President following the first Gulf War, but he squandered it and lost to […]
Young parents, be patient with yourselves
I was with a group of friends last night, most of which are parents of young kids. It was a riot! Almost literally. And I loved it. The decible level was probably beyond the safe […]
Worship that closes the us-them divide
Living outside of my home country changed me. I’ve traveled to almost every continent as a tourist, but it was those five years of living in Canada that changed me. I became a world citizen […]
From weapon words to worship words
Can you hear them? They talk about us Telling lies Well, that’s no surprise Can you see them? See right through them They have no shield No secrets to reveal It doesn’t matter what they […]
Thirsty prayer
O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water (Ps. 63:1). Those words […]
Where the soul finds rest
She had seemed so nice. She was always so warm and friendly and she asked such great questions, drawing out unguarded thoughts. But as I watched her turn on her mother and then family and […]
When I feel far from God
There are times when God seems just about as far away as possible. I feel alone and even with crowds around me, the world feels empty. There are times when God feels as close as […]
The lie behind my “yeah, but” spirituality
What attitude do I bring to the Scriptures when I read them? Is there an attentiveness to what is written? Is there an expectation to hear from God? Is there a readiness to obey? Obedience […]
The self-offering of worship & the importance of giving our money away
In an effort to communicate to visitors that they aren’t trying to get their money, many churches have given up the practice of taking an offering during Sunday worship. I get the intention behind the […]
Telling meaningful stories
We all tell a lot of stories and listen to a lot of stories. It’s one of the main ways we humans communicate and make connections with one another, pulling past experiences into the present moment […]
Breath prayers
I was asked for a prayer to help someone focus himself, to center himself as he faces death from numerous physical failings. And so I gave him five “breath prayers” pulled from the Scriptures. Here […]
The two Christmas gifts the world still needs
When the angel army sang to those shepherds in the field that Christmas night, their song was of two things most needed in the world: “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth […]
The problem of perspective
Living behind my eyes and ears, I am stuck with seeing and hearing the world from my limited perspective. Sometimes, I’m able to add my perspective and help others see things more clearly. But too […]
Some things are better broken
Some things are better broken. It’s being broken that makes some things what they are, and I’m not just talking about the eggs in an omelet. The armless Venus de Milo is one of the […]
How long, God? The waiting is killing me!
Pain can feel eternal. Suffering slows the clock to a crawl. In the hospital where I work, I see people in deep pain on a regular basis. Physical pain that so fills the senses it’s […]
Let it be
When Paul McCartney wrote The Beatles’ song “Let It Be,” he may have been thinking of his own mother Mary who died when he was 14 and not the the mother of Jesus, but he […]
Sleeping in the face of fear
Life is hard enough with all of its pressures and demands from outside of our homes, but when the dividing lines which fracture our lives run through our families, the stress can break us. The […]
The psalm that saved us on 9/11
It was September 11, 2001. We’d been woken up by a phone call and a crying voice on the other end, telling us a plane had flown into a building in New York City. And […]
40: More than just a U2 psalm
I was a sophomore in high school when I started listening to U2, with the release of their War album. As has been their pattern, the band ends the album with a hymn of sorts. […]
The Door: A Christmas story
“Will you shut that door! “How many times do I have to say it? “You’d think we were trying to heat the whole world the way you leave the doors open, letting all the warm […]
An integrated life in a disintegrating world
How I live and how I worship need to be the same. I need to be the same me when I’m praying as when I’m playing. If there are two Petes, I’m in trouble. But […]
The birth of King Jesus & how we celebrate Christmas
My Sri Lankan friend Prabo Mihindukulasuriya has the most amazing name ever. He also has keen insight. And he shares the following words about the birth of Jesus — as King — and how it […]
False piety & the sign of the virgin
The Christmas story is one of our favorite and best. There’s no shortage to the ways it speaks to us of our great need and God’s great love. But among all of its beautiful themes, […]