As a speech major in college, I had to take a theatre course. One of the required texts was Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, by Annie Dillard. The book was published in 1974, about four years before my class. It resonated deeply with the observational, experiential, rooted-in-nature worldview of the professor.  I didn’t read it.  (I […]

Fifteen years ago, I started a post this way: “I jot notes to myself. Sometimes they become part of lessons or sermons or posts. Sometimes they just accumulate.” And then I shared the list that follows. I have no idea of the contexts. It was a long time ago. But some of them are helpful […]

Rich Dixon invites us to think carefully about injustice. +++ I take Dietrich Bonhoeffer seriously. Nobody’s got a perfect take on following Jesus, but Bonhoeffer literally put his life on the line for his beliefs. In my estimation, that makes him worth listening to. So, when he said, “Your YES to Jesus requires your NO to […]

I need a psalm for sitting on the deck. Not because I’m good at it, of course. But because I am not.  +++ Blessed are the ones who sit quietly on the deck. They shall hear the acorns like hailstones on the deck. They shall see the crows circling. And circling. And circling. They shall […]

The other day, about 11 a.m., the coffee filter folded over as the water dripped into it. I didn’t know until I took the first sip of what was, to my taste, brown water. Because I’d been looking forward to a good cup of coffee, and because the folded filter was clearly my fault, I […]