What a difference a year makes!! One year ago, I stepped away from a position of 12 years and I was in a pretty dark place. I was overpowered with sadness and grief and I was too embarrassed to share my experience with more than...
The theme this Advent week is “Look Everywhere” which immediately made me think of a story from the first days of our marriage. The wedding ring Sarah wears is a modest but very old diamond that originally belonged to my great, great grandmother. As the...
Each week you will find here a new practice encouraging us to “look up” from the ordinary chaos and mundane routines that keep up from seeing God’s goodness and promise breaking in all around us. . GOD'S LOVE AND COMPASSION: This week, let us look up to...
It is December, and the assignment is to "Look up -- for signs of fruitfulness and new life." But it is December! Fires have burned the hillsides; plants are dormant; animals are seeking shelter from the rain and cold. And yet -- . And yet, I am...
About ten years ago I read an article about a pastor in the Brazil who filled Copacabana Beach with small crosses. Each of the thousands of crosses represented a victim of gun violence, primarily from the shantytown communities of Rio de Janeiro called “favelas”. This...
Each week you will find here a new practice encouraging us to “look up” from the ordinary chaos and mundane routines that keep up from seeing God’s goodness and promise breaking in all around us. . LOOKING FOR OPPORTUNITIES: This week, should we find ourselves feeling fatigued...
Diana: John, we’ve been on many trails together. Which one is the oddest one? . John: You told me that you couldn’t marry anyone who was not a Methodist minister. . Diana: Yeah. That was strong, right? . John: Yes. Overly strong, I thought. But I dutifully went off to seminary,...
Each week you will find here a new practice encouraging us to “look up” from the ordinary chaos and mundane routines that keep up from seeing God’s goodness and promise breaking in all around us. . LOOKING FOR OPPORTUNITIES: In the busyness of this season, we might...
Last Sunday, we held Westwood’s annual Thanksgiving Lunch. Once again, it was a great day of food and community, of friends and conversation, of laughter and thankfulness! As I was driving home, it struck me that Thanksgiving is this week and, for many of us, is the kick-off of...
Each week you will find here a new practice encouraging us to “look up” from the ordinary chaos and mundane routines that keep up from seeing God’s goodness and promise breaking in all around us. . MESSENGERS FROM GOD: This week, if we lose sight of God's...