Sometimes suffering isn’t punishment.

(Continued from yesterday) +++ Let’s look at the texts from this morning. The night before Jesus was executed, he prayed for his disciples. It’s what we read in John 17. He talked to his father about finished his assignment. He talked about doing a good job with his followers, passing on to them everything he […]

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Talking a little about suffering.

Sometime back, I met with some other people from churches who do hospital visiting. People were talking about what they do, what they’ve learned. I suggested that we learn to say, “I don’t know.” “Why is this happening to me? What’s going to happen?” “I don’t know. “ Because often, we jump to conclusions. We […]

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A prayer for the seventh Sunday of Easter

God. We don’t want fiery ordeals. We don’t want any ordeals, actually. We don’t want to be anxious, we don’t want to be tested, we don’t want to have to be alert, we don’t want you to be gone.Because we like to believe that if you knew what was going on, you would fix it.If […]

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Before moving on, take a breath and acknowledge.

I talked with a couple friends about a couple things that may be ending after a few decades. It feels like failure, a little. It feels like people aren’t as committed as they used to be, or as devoted. It feels like the people who could have made a difference, who could have been supportive, […]

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A chance to think about thinking.

Deep breath. I’m back. As Nancy and I were driving home from a conference on Tuesday, I said I was grateful that I had a post from Rich for Wednesday because I felt like I didn’t have anything to say. She reminded me of all the conversations I’d participated in and listened to, the time […]

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