“I do not understand.” That’s what I said to God before the graveside service for our five-week old daughter in 1989. I wasn’t mad, exactly, but I did not understand, and I wanted to be honest with God about it. I have talked to people who are angry. Sometimes they express that anger toward people. […]

I was talking to somebody recently who had lost a loved one. In the course of our conversation, they were talking about their last conversation with the person who had died.  It wasn’t necessarily a bad one but it wasn’t a magnificent one, either.  She said “If I had known it was our last time […]

God. Most of us are not in church today. More accurately, most of the human beings who live in the world are not in a church building. And of the humans who think of ourselves in some way as followers of you, at least a simple majority of us are not likely to be in […]

Elijah had been threatened with death and was feeling abandoned by God. He spent five weeks of silent retreat in the wilderness, going to the mountain. He laid out his complaint: “I’ve done what I was called by you to do. I’m the only one left following you. Everyone has abandoned your way of life. […]

I was needing to read the speech of Elihu the other day. It’s in the last part of the book of Job. I started a couple pages early and read Job’s speech. He’s aware of helping those in need. He describes practicing hospitality in powerful and thoughtful ways. I hadn’t looked closely at it, but […]