300 words a day

On Wednesday, Jim Josephson, 39, spent 15 minutes reading the Facebook status updates and shared posts of friends. He then decided not to comment on any of them. In a candid statement published on his LinkedIn page, Josephson wrote about his experience: “It was rough for me,” he wrote. “I like conversation as much as […]

“There is no shame in not leaping from a plane. There is no shame in delivering a good batch of non-gourmet chocolate chip cookies.” I wrote those sentences on January 2, 2014. I was thinking about writing a manifesto, a battle cry of belief. A manifesto is an answer to the question posed on the […]

In the church calendar, we are in the season after Pentecost. From now until December, the Sundays aren’t anything special. After the fasts and feasts, after Advent, Christmastide, Epiphany, after Lent and Holy Week and Eastertide, we are in ordinary time, Sundays known by their numbers, or by their weeks after Pentecost. +++ God. It […]

This post originally appeared in February 2022. We’re reposting it, since Paul Merrill is on vacation. +++ I have a really old pair of shoes. I keep them by our front door and only wear them to take the trash out. The stitching has worn out in several places. The soles are maybe the third […]

I’m terrible at helping them. I don’t know people who do hiring. I don’t have five quick tips for anything, let alone finding work. Several friends are in their late forties and early fifties. Other friends are younger, others are older. Some have been in “church work” and it hasn’t gone well. Because church work […]