I’ve been staring at the screen for awhile now, trying to think of a way to bring this year’s Lenten Journal to an end and I have not found them — at least, I haven’t found words of my own. What I have found are words I first heard on Bob Bennett’s record, First Things…
Holy Week has had to jockey for space on the calendar this week like an NCAA basketball player working to get in position under the basket. Monday was Saint Patrick’s Day. Tuesday, Barack Obama made his amazing speech on race in America in which, as John Stewart said, “talked to us as if we were…
One of the things my friend Mia have in common is we both spent part of our adolescence in Kenya. She sent me a link today to the NPR program, Speaking of Faith with Katrina Tippet, which was new to me because it doesn’t play on our local station. This week’s program revisits an interview…
My most significant Christmas present came from my whole family: sessions with a personal trainer. Since the first of the year, I’ve been seeing Chad (or as I like to call him, “Hanging Chad”) and he has been kicking my butt. The sessions are paying off because I have significantly less butt to kick. One…
Tomorrow is the official beginning of March Madness, or the NCAA Basketball Tournaments for both men and women. In our area basketball matters perhaps as much as anywhere on the planet and the shade of blue you wear to the game is a crucial decision (Duke – dark blue; UNC – light, or Carolina, blue)….
When we lived in New England, one of the staples in my day was listening to a show called The Connection, a call-in show hosted by a man named Dick Gordon who had a marvelous way of drawing people into conversation and making connections for those who both talked and listened. One morning, he was…
I went to work today with great expectations. Sunday night I had fun at work. About three weeks ago, we began trying a new thing on Sunday nights because they are usually very slow. We now do a “Sunday Night Special” that I serve from a buffet in the dining room: one meat entrée, one…
When Ginger calls us to worship each Sunday, after the announcements, she says, Take a deep breath; now let it out.Breathe in the breath of God;breathe out the love of God. As we stood in the spring sunshine this morning, our palm leaves in hand, I could see the faces of people as they inhaled…
on the road home the miles feelfaster than those on the roadout of town – my body respondsfrom muscle memory, my mindworking like a pace car,knowingwhat to feel with each passingbillboard, how long to wait,how to titrate the anticipation.familiar roads are shorter roads the road from here to resurrectionis mapped in my mind (and myheart),…
I walked the neighborhoodtonight to The Green Room,our neighborhood bar,“serving Durham since Prohibition”in a small square buildingwhose green walls are as infusedwith smoke as it is with stories.Beer and basketball were my menutonight, as others shot pool andplayed table shuffleboard,each of us speaking to the otheras we crisscrossed the roomlike billard balls on green felt.Michael,…