“The Week of His Arrest”
Will the arrest of an ideological leader capture your attention this week? Why? And what story guides your choice of a “messiah”?
Birding in Belize 2023
Rita and I were privileged to spend some relaxing time in Belize this winter, recovering and healing from life and health stresses. It was so good to visit several national parks, including St Herman’s Blue Hole and Mayflower Bocawina. We also just walked along the roads where our hosts, Loren and Mairi Helmuth, lived. It was especially satisfying to compile a list of 162 bird species on this 14-day trip, as we didn’t have birds coming to feeders, and we only had a bird guide for a few hours. I added 25 species to my life list. We’re getting more Read More
Merry Christmas, family and friends!
The greatest joy of life is our relationships with family, neighbours, friends in many places. Merry Christmas!
What’s For Christmas Dinner?
Is the seasonal story of the Christ a bite of energy that we can consume with a quick gulp? Or is it an exquisite gourmet experience with all the complexities and intrigue of a carefully-crafted holiday feast?
Because Political Outcomes Don’t Satisfy
On a day when election results are pending, on a day when uncertainty hangs like fog, on a day when fears rise like bubbles on soup, on a day when tensions are like a balloon with a nail pressing in on it, on a day when we wonder if reason and common sense will ever break through the overcast sky again–I have some thoughts I’d like to share especially with those who claim to be followers of Christ. As I consider being vulnerable while attempting to share life, encouragement and hope with those in my faith community world-wide, I decided Read More
Embracing “Tidings of Comfort and Joy”
Some Christmas song lyrics are cycling in my head almost every day: “God rest ye merry gentlemen, let nothing you dismay…” and “O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy…” This December has brought into sharp focus the reality of death and the uncertainties about the plans we make for ourselves and for our families. Within a week, two elders who were dear friends of mine left their spouses, families, and communities grieving their sudden passing. It makes me wonder if my plans for Christmas and for my family will be altered just as suddenly. Would I embrace the Read More
Good Years and Solid Grace
Yesterday I worked quite energetically at putting water on dry ground, making sure my tomato plants don’t wither. I spent long minutes at each of the flower beds for which Rita cared. I was trying to imagine how deeply the moisture was penetrating the ground as I sprayed expensive water from the garden hose. In the back of my mind, I could picture the water meter in our basement spinning furiously. Just a few hours later, we were celebrating a short downpour of rain. This rain wasn’t carefully aimed at a few tomato root systems. This rain wasn’t strategically planned Read More
The Impact of 215
Sadness, anger, horror, incredulity, shame, regret, and repentance are just a few of the emotions and responses that cycle through my soul since hearing of the discovery of 215 children’s bodies buried at an Indian Residential School in British Columbia. Read it here. These are people that died away from their homes and communities; people that disappeared without explanation and without record. It is the ultimate evidence of an arrogant, racist, and elitist system that married governments and churches into one deliberate machine intended to erase a people and to eliminate identity and to destroy any residue of ethnic sovereignty. Read More
An Emerging Moral Portrait
When I read the phrase “moral portrait” recently, it stirred a memory of my dad. At some period in my much-younger days, I remember my dad talking about the late-in-life actions and the last words of some of the older men in his community. As several of these men lost mental awareness and as they lost verbal filters, they did and said things that were shocking–given their legacies and reputations as moral examples in the church and community. That seemed to be a personal warning and a frightening prospect for my dad. He talked about ways of preventing such a Read More
The Ditch Is Not the Road To Anywhere
I was four years old when I first became aware of the ditches on either side of our country road. I’ve never forgotten my childhood version of ditch trauma. I was hanging out with an older brother to whom had been given the job of herding a group of cattle in the ditch on the side of the road in front of our farmyard. The cattle were able to find edible grass there where the last bits of moisture in the arid Kansas summer provided some green feed. I was playing along the edge of the road when a county Read More