As a kid, I couldn’t wait for Christmas. I ached for it to arrive. Growing up in Southern California, we didn’t get snow like we do where I live now in Bend, Oregon. But in […]
Tag: Hope
1 Peter 3
Thinking and acting in the same way, wives don’t fight with your husbands. Not-fighting is the key to “winning.” And the goal here is that unbelieving husbands would be won over. It’s your beautiful and […]
The in-between
Between the cross and the empty tomb Are the hours Of a strange Sabbath, A brutal pause, A death-filled rest, A peace-less peace. This is where we live our lives: One long Holy Saturday, Where […]
Psalm 130
A rendering of Psalm 130, where the light of a new dawn offers hope that Yahweh will bring a new day during a dark time of life.
Psalm 31
A rendering of Psalm 31, a psalm in the midst of shame and anxiety that finds hope and shame’s cure in God’s faithfulness.
Psalm 146
A rendering of Psalm 146, which considers human sources of hope before considering God’s long resumé of real hope-inspiring help.
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” […]
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 […]
A different citizenship. A different hope.
We live in a world of beliefs. We are told that if we just invest ourselves fully in certain human endeavors, we can save ourselves and we can solve the problems of the world. Politics, […]
Rediscovering hope in a hopeless culture
We live in one of the most hopeless, now-oriented cultures in human history. We can hardly look past today, much less the next election without shaking our heads. Our imaginations are filled with dystopian, future-shock […]
Don't vote for evil.
As this year’s presidential campaign continues, I am asked more and more often, “What do I do? I can’t decide who to vote for. I don’t like either of the two main candidates.” Now, there […]
Credit cards, usury & the new slavery
There was a time when usury was a punishable offense. Now, it is business as usual. And it has created a whole new form of slavery called massive credit card debt. Usury is the over-charging […]
The sanity of Sabbath-keeping
One of the most life-changing books that I’ve ever read is Marva Dawn’s Keeping the Sabbath Wholly: Ceasing, Resting, Embracing, Feasting. In it, she explains how Sabbath-keeping isn’t so much a matter of obligation, but of […]
Three essentials for leading a meaningful life
The great Scottish writer George MacDonald isolated three essentials for leading a meaningful life Someone to love. Something to do. Something to hope for. When I first came across this list, I was surprised that the first […]
Living in the moment & hoping for the future
We all live in an eternal now. Everything in our lives is in the present tense. The past is gone and untouchable and the future is unformed and unhatched. This moment right here is all […]
Things that make my heart hurt about the Charleston massacre
As the news unfolds about the young white man who entered an historic black church and killed nine people there, a number of things have passed through my head and heart, making me hurt along […]
The purpose of worship — from experience to encounter
In a 2005 interview with Christianity Today, Eugene Peterson said, “Do we realize how almost exactly the Baal culture of Canaan is reproduced in American church culture? Baal religion is about what makes you feel […]
The importance of self-knowledge to exceeding our limitations
How good of a driver do you think you are? Top 50%? Top 90%? I don’t know where the stat came from, but years ago I read that 90% of Americans think they’re in the […]
Are we living in bad times or good times?
One of the worst parts of using Facebook is seeing all of the articles people post whining about how bad things are these days. It doesn’t matter what your political leaning is, there is plenty […]