A friend of mine reminded me the other day how communal the Lords prayer is. It is filled with the words “Our” and “Us”. We know that the Spirit of God is at work when there are more signs of community, mutual understanding, and a turning towards God and one another in peace. This echoes…
Tag: pastoral care
The Image of God is the Image of Justice
But you, God of mercy and compassion, slow to anger, O Lord, abounding in love and truth, turn and take pity on me. – Psalm 86 The Lord has made known his salvation; has shown his justice to the nations. Rejoice at the presence of the Lord: for he comes to rule the earth. He…
Morning Prayer
From the Divine Office: (A needed prayer for the rhythms of work) We thank you, Lord, for enlightening us through your Son,— fill us with his light throughout the day.Enlighten us, Lord. Let your wisdom lead us today, Lord,— that we may walk in the newness of life.Enlighten us, Lord. May we bear hardships with courage…
The Art of Dying
When I first started doing ministry and chaplaincy work, I was faced with my own mortality. It didn’t take long for me to learn that death was real. My first funeral I officiated was my baptism into this new reality. I didn’t realize that the person we were honoring that day–that even their death–they were…
Weeping as a Spiritual Discipline
6.16.2020 Morning Meditation Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, all at the entrances of their tents…For they come weeping to me…I am not able to carry all this people alone, for they are too heavy for me. If this is the way you are going to treat me, put me to death at…
Morning Meditation: 6.12.2020
Can you and I just confess that we need instruction and direction? That we get stuck in life, need direction, or just some plain encouragement to keep doing good? My morning times are a means for me to pull myself together and “get into” God’s presence. Sometimes there is a sense of God’s nearness and…
Morning Meditation 6.10.2020
Yoke of slavery. I don’t like using that S word for obvious reasons. Maybe a truer expression is to be controlled, oppressed. A yoke of being controlled, manipulated, or made to do something out of threat. In all four passages for today’s liturgical readings, there is a whiff of being controlled or manipulated to be…
Our God Reigns
There are numerous instances in my life where things (an event, musical piece, relationship, school paper, work situation, a basketball game) seem to be spinning of out control. Chalk it up to things like unknown variables, high emotions and tempers, fears or concerns, or multiple voices. Whatever it is, I feel like I’m spinning. Usually,…
Mutual Empowerment
Since the pain and hurt we feel as a nation is caused by un-wielded power, empower others. How? Here’s an example. A wealthy, white business man took a chance to empower me for a new service at his company. I provide corporate chaplaincy services to a dealer group because someone believed in me and gave…
Spiritual Formation: on Evasion
“Evasion is directly related to both the closeness of God’s approach to us and to our instinctive withdrawal from God‘s presence. Experiences of God as mystery evoke awe, even fear, in the face of the numinous and uncontrollable otherness of God….T.S. Elliot [says]… ‘if you’ve never run away from God, I wonder who your God…
