300 words a day

“There is no shame in not leaping from a plane. There is no shame in delivering a good batch of non-gourmet chocolate chip cookies.” I wrote those sentences on January 2, 2014. I was thinking about writing a manifesto, a battle cry of belief. A manifesto is an answer to the question posed on the […]

In the church calendar, we are in the season after Pentecost. From now until December, the Sundays aren’t anything special. After the fasts and feasts, after Advent, Christmastide, Epiphany, after Lent and Holy Week and Eastertide, we are in ordinary time, Sundays known by their numbers, or by their weeks after Pentecost. +++ God. It […]

This post originally appeared in February 2022. We’re reposting it, since Paul Merrill is on vacation. +++ I have a really old pair of shoes. I keep them by our front door and only wear them to take the trash out. The stitching has worn out in several places. The soles are maybe the third […]

I’m terrible at helping them. I don’t know people who do hiring. I don’t have five quick tips for anything, let alone finding work. Several friends are in their late forties and early fifties. Other friends are younger, others are older. Some have been in “church work” and it hasn’t gone well. Because church work […]

Rich Dixon is looking in the mirror: +++ Your YES to God requires your NO to all injustice. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer Bonhoeffer is an enigma to me. A man who stood firmly against the Nazi regime, who could have chosen safety in America but elected to return to Germany and speak in Jesus’ name against […]