The nurse called the chaplain’s phone. “My patient is actively dying. The family would like a visit.” I went. I sat down next to the son. We talked. The nurse was in and out. The intensivist stopped by, confirming what the doctor had said on the phone a couple hours earlier. There wasn’t anything more […]

God. We’re stopped now. Our bodies at rest, sitting or standing, or lying here. But our minds are not at rest, racing around a track to catch understanding of what is happening, why we are in this situation, now, in this place. Our hearts are beating faster with the adrenaline of fear of what could […]

Different people talk differently, comfort differently, choose different vocabulary and styles of speech. Because I’m a words and speech person, I notice that. When I offer comfort, I try to use fewer rather than more words. I try to offer less rather than more “there there” language and “umm hmm”. Though I often have a […]

Time to finish this story about not being afraid. Part one and part two. +++ So what do we do? If we’ve been given our standing in the kingdom, our place. If we don’t have to worry about making God happy enough to love us, being strong enough to fight our way in, being amazing […]

More on Rich Dixon’s story: +++ Last time you and Leonard left me at the bottom of a hill. He left me there, next to all the traffic, right in the middle of the street. Is he crazy? I’m going to get killed! I waited. No way he’s going to just leave me here. He’ll […]