Faith, Grace, and Hope

Years ago, my dad used to say, “You know what’s right- do it.” These were usually his parting words before I left on a trip or to be gone for a while. As I grew older. My dad and I sometimes differed on the exact nature of what was “right”, but I never lost sight of the heart of what I knew he meant about respecting others, sticking up for people, speaking out, and being generous with what you have. Telling the truth and being willing to apologize and make amends were among the things that were “right”. Humiliating memes, AI lies and slop (fake news and pics), and blaming underlings are all things I’ve seen in the past 24 hours across the internet- from my hometown to the highest office in the land. It’s not right. It’s not excusable. And it has to stop. And blaming the bots or staffers or saying that it was just a video or a story is unacceptable. I’m not putting a Bible verse here because a person can find a verse to support just about anything and I will not weaponize scripture. Ins...

There is a lot of current conversation using the words patriotism and nationalism as though they were interchangeable phrases or concepts. Historically, they have not been interchangeable and I would argue they’re not today either.  Patriotism and nationalism differ in the areas of unity vs. uniformity, reflection, and expectation around improvement. They both reflect a love of country and a pride in home and aspects of history. One is more willing to embrace truth-telling than the other.  With regard to unity vs. uniformity, nationalism seeks the latter. Most nationalist movements have a concept of the “ideal” citizen in terms of race, religion, and/or political ideology. In the beginning of most nationalist movements, this is the “quiet” part. Leaders of the movement don’t necessarily specify these preferred expressions because they need everyone to be “all in” in order to achieve power. Eventually, though, the truth will out. Look to who speaks for the group most often and ...

Due to having surgery this week, I'm starting a little behind on this daily devotional. I'll catch up days 1-3 at some point. See the prompts here . Text:  And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. Matthew 24:31 Prompt: SHUT UP Yesterday, I had my uterus removed. After several years of pain and bleeding and messiness and discomfort and solutions that only created more problems, we did the thing that would make it all stop. We removed the source of the problem.  "Shut up" is the utterance we think of- possibly a little rude- when we want someone  or something to stop talking or making noise or creating a distraction.  I wanted my uterus to shut up. It had served its purpose for me (growing two healthy babies) and now it was dysfunctional and its noisiness was disruptive and painful.  Since I didn't often mention the pain I was experiencing ...

Bitmoji Julia enjoys tea Within a very short amount of time, two people whom I love were called "fat ass". One of these slurs occurred in the church building and the other occurred in the same building and within the context of worship. Both incidents were the result of a person with already impaired judgment lashing out at the person who was in front of them, perceiving them to be unhelpful or denying aid or service. Regardless of the "why", the reality is that the name was uncalled for, hurtful, and aimed to be a deep cut. The reality is that a person who is under the influence of legal or illegal substances and often displays impaired judgment can still tell that body shaming- comments about shape, appearance, or size- is a way to lash out at someone who is frustrating you. That means those words and that way of using them are deeply rooted in our culture. An additional truth is that when we, as a congregation, attempted to console and listen to those who h...

This was written for a prayer service in Anchorage, Alaska in response to a significant rise in reported homicides and other personal crimes. It has a partner in the Litany for Binding. Holy God of all creation, you are always moving toward resurrection, restoration, and reformation. With the help of the Holy Spirit, we are open to this work. We truly welcome this. God of love and light, you have provided us with diversity in race, creed, sexuality, experience, gender, and spiritual gifts- all of which can be used for healing and peace. With the help of the Holy Spirit, we are open to this work. We truly welcome this. God of peace and hope, open our eyes and ears to see and hear stories of pain and promise that we might hold space for one another and move toward reconciliation. With the help of the Holy Spirit, we are open to this work. We truly welcome this. God of consolation and mercy, those who grieve need accompaniment not only in the hours after death, ...

HEARING I've been trying to catch up on my podcasts since I didn't listen to nearly any during the month of June. That means I'm months behind in Stuff You Missed In History Class , This American Life, Slate, and many others. I'm interested in adding another book podcast to my feed, but I don't know if that's wise financially. (The podcast is free, but... books.) Not all the podcasts are child-friendly and since a lot of my time in the car (otherwise known as podcast time) is with kids, some things have to wait.  I also have three new audiobooks waiting.  SEEING I'm seeing fall. Of course, that means winter is, at best, 2-3 weeks away (hello, Alaska!). The yellow birch is gorgeous, though.  MAKING I have a lot of crocheting projects anywhere from just started to almost finished. And it's almost hat making season!  DREAMING I'm going to start a second blog (because I'm so good at this one). The second one will be focused on book r...

The BlogHer August prompts are about fairy tales. Do you believe it's possible for some people to get that fairy tale ending of happily ever after? I think it depends on what we think happily ever after looks like. I read a lot of romance novels and the community of romance readers is very big on what we call the HEA (happily ever after). In fact, if there is a not a clear resolution of conflict and at least the implication that the main characters are going to live together in love and harmony, then we're fairly quick to reject it as romance.  However, HEA covers a multitude of dishes, vacation squabbles, differences of opinion, socks forgotten on the stairs, burned dinner, and general frustration. The implication is that love will cover all these things- if indeed any of these things occur. Many contemporary (setting and writing) romances deal with a variety of more complex issues: learning difficulties, mismatched personalities, chronic illness, children who are more t...

Thirty-five days ago, I left Poland. It has not yet left me and I don't really expect that it will. I am still sorting through what I saw, felt, heard, and experienced. Some of these things may take years to put together and some I may have already forgotten. Only God knows how these things will finally take shape or root within me. There is one experience that I actually continue to think about almost daily. Going in, I thought about this with almost anthropological interest, but very little emotional attachment. Yet, now, I think of it constantly. When I think of this situation, I feel grief and frustration, sadness and hurt, impassioned and, yet, paralyzed. By Manederequesens (Own work) [ CC BY-SA 4.0 ], via Wikimedia Commons On Thursday, May 26th, Roman Catholic Poles, along with Roman Catholics around the world, celebrated the Feast of Corpus Christi.  In Krakow, the Friend of Calvin who came to visit me and I were interested to see the observance of this feast. It is...

The other day I saw this meme on Facebook and it was liked by several people I respect. The poster (who I doubt was the original poster) was not someone I knew, but a pseudonym (I assume and hope) that asserted that this person enjoys being the grouch in a congregation. That's too bad. Something about this particular picture/meme set my teeth on edge. It's not because I love selfies or even that I take very many. This has the tinge of annoyance that implies that people who do something differently than you are wrong, even if what they are doing is not inherently wrong.  For much of human history, the people who were preserved in art had money. You had to have plenty of money to have your image carved in stone. You had to have the connections to commission a likeness and the implied power to keep the artist working. Even if a particular artist was creating an image that involved, say, a biblical persona, he (or she) might model the scene with a likeness of a local leader or w...

Prompt:  What is the hardest part of a big project: getting the energy to begin, finding the time to work on it, or feeling down that it's over? I can never get started.  It's not because I like putting things off. It is actually because of my fear of failing. As long as I haven't started, the project is not a failure.  I started to write "perfect", but I don't actually expect perfection of myself. That's not attainable. I do, however, have a standard for myself that probably looks like perfection to some people. I tend to operate with the personal expectation of a high level of  competency, creativity, and clarity. I feel it very deeply when I fail on one of those.  Thus, it is often easier not to start something because I can't flop on what I don't leap for.  What a horrible sentence .  It is the time of year when all my spare thoughts are about my Christmas Eve sermon. What can I say to communicate the power, mystery, and deep love ...

I'm currently at the Collegeville Institute in Minnesota for a writing workshop week. We are using building that once was called the Ecumenical Institute, where work to unite churches and faithful people was done with earnestness and great hope. Today is also the Feast Day for St. Columba, among others, who helped to bring the Christian faith and establish its roots in Scotland (and elsewhere in Britain). I have been to Iona Abbey, one of the monasteries associated with Columba. The pictures here are from Iona. Listening to crickets chirping, loons calling, and seeing an actual sunset out my window (doesn't happen in AK this time of year), I am thinking of those whose faithfulness makes our lives possible. God's provision for the future through the faithful is moving and provocative. What am I doing on a daily or even semi-regular basis that God may use to improve lives in the future? The reality is I may never know. But I remain committed to sharing the gospel, to ...

Since it's still pretty gray here, I searched through some old photos for inspiration for the Lenten photo a day word: purple . This is from a walk I took by myself around the outskirts of Bath, England. It was late September, very warm, and sunny. I skirted a cow pasture on an old path, on a hill above the town. I found an old graveyard, a blackberry patch, and a canal. This picture of flowers blooming out of a wall is the essence of purple - a regal growth of life in the midst of stones. There's something to that.

I recently got a Fitbit - a pretty fancy pedometer. I got it in part because other efforts toward health and activity have not been successful. Fitbit gives me little encouragements toward daily and weekly goals (and beyond). This morning I woke to an email congratulating me on having earned a 50 mile badge. Since starting with the Fitbit on 2/3, I've walked 50 miles while wearing it. That's essentially 5 miles a day. On the one hand, I'm thrilled that this is working for me like nothing else ever has. On the other hand, I feel embarrassed to need the adult version of a sticker chart to encourage me to healthy habits. In discussing this with some others today, they mentioned that they too really thrive on little boosts of encouragement and affirmation. Do we do enough of this in general for the people around us? I mean, genuinely affirm who they are, their efforts, and their progress? The other thing I think about is this: what would a Fitbit for spiritual hea...

This week's reading from Joshua includes the famous verse:  "Now if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amories in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, well will serve the Lord." (Joshua 24:15)  When I think of this verse, I consider the truth that we're never really choosing if  we are going to have a god, we're constantly choosing what we will worship as god. Will we choose the God of creation, who has chosen us, or we will choose any number of lesser gods- whose glittering promises of health, wealth, and power are played like siren calls from all corners of the world?  Whom will we serve?  I keep hearing the words of the prophet, Bob Dylan, singing, "You gotta serve somebody..." It's not that we've gotta, it's that we're gonna... so whom will you choose?  "Gotta ...