Psalm 139 on a Wednesday night When I speak to children I speak in a voice that gathers them in Even while they tumble across the carpet Like puppies with clothes They whine and yip and yelp occasionally But when…
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Choosing and Praying a Breath Prayer Praying a breath prayer is just what it sounds like. To pray as you follow your breath – using words – connects the body to the sacred. And praying a breath prayer can open…
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Breathing a Prayer Let everything that has breath praise the Creator. When we lived in Georgia parishioners there introduced us to the amaryllis. Every year a pot with a gigantic bulb would appear on my desk during Advent. By the…
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Contemplating Lent Lent. A season of preparation. And repentance. Preparation, I can get with. Repentance, that’s harder to face. Preparing is one of those things I can do. Maybe even when I can’t do the thing itself. Family lore says…
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Wisdom and Folly “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding.” Psalm 111:10 January has been a full month for me. It has held more travel than usual, intensive…
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Embodied Knowing vs. Rational Calculation Tonight I saw the latest Sherlock Holmes movie starring Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes and Jude Law as the good Dr. Watson. When the sequel, “A Game of Shadows” was announced, I was reminded of an early…
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Imagination This month I am working on an article with my partner in research in the Learning Pastoral Imagination Project. Chris Scharen and I are writing about pastoral imagination itself. And as a part of that we are reviewing literature…
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A New Day Dawning What’s that sound? The stirring wind of a new day. As the sun rose this morning over Lake Michigan, a new day in Baptist scholarship also dawned. It was not simply the panel presentation at the…
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Windy City The next few weeks hold lots of travel. Next stop: Chicago for the American Society of Church History annual meeting. It will be my first time to attend that gathering. I’ll tweet some impressions and anything notable I…
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Looking Back and Looking Ahead Another year of blogging. This post #200 since I began blogging two years ago (Advent 2009). A few changes are underway. I’m working on the site to make it a bit more visually appealing. I’ve…
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Christmastide II – It Takes Two Hands
It Takes Two Hands In our extended families we stretch out Christmas for several days. And we try to keep our family meals and gift exchanges to one-per-day. Christmas 2011 is in the books now. It was enjoyable for the…
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Christmas Eve May the peace and love of Christ find its way into your life and take up permanent residence.
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Inspiration Tonight my spouse recklessly left me in charge of weekly announcements at church. I meant to take the pink sparkly Santa hat to punch things up a bit. Lucky for everyone I overlooked it as I went out the…
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Advent VI : Blessed Is She
Blessed Is She “And blessed is she who believed that there would be fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.” – Luke 1:45 (NRSV) Elizabeth said this to Mary, in the visit when both women were carrying…
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Advent IV : Rethinking the Posture of Waiting
Rethinking the Posture of Waiting (2011) Here we are on the third Sunday in Advent, a celebration of Joy. We are thinking and waiting in expectation. And although my daughter awoke sick long before dawn, she is on the mend,…
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Change “We can shape but can’t control these possibilities to grow.” -Seryn The one constant of the universe? Change. Well, it depends on which cosmology you are embracing today . . . My own is under construction (as usual). My…
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Advent II : Learning Stories of Advent
Learning Stories of Advent (2011) One of the many gifts of following the church year and circling through the life of Jesus and the life of the church every twelve months, is its orientation of newcomers into the practice of…
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