Eugene Peterson is a mentor of mine, though we have never met face-to-face or time-to-time. Peterson writes about lots of things and wrote The Message, a modern language version of the Bible. Recently, I read The Contemplative Pastor, subtitled “Returning to the Art of Spiritual Direction.” In the middle of the book, Peterson writes of […]

I don’t know how to talk to Nancy, either, if by pray or talk you mean “always get what you want” or “always understand what the other person is thinking as you speak” or “never be surprised by what the other person says or by where the conversation goes” or “always feeling better about myself […]

“Can you go out and get some parsley?” That’s what Nancy said. I was sitting at my desk trying to figure out where my writing for the next month is going. I had printed out the last couple week’s worth of posts. I was starting to leaf through the pages.  And she called down the […]

I understand being anxious. Not in the “looking forward to” sense or the “can hardly wait” sense but in the “aaaiiieee” sense. And I understand that what I’m about to write is easier to say than to do. But that isn’t a reason to not write it. Paul makes a very simple statement in Philippians […]