I was driving home from church on Sunday when a song crossed my mind I had not thought of in a long time. “Hey, Siri,” I said, “play ‘My Old Man’ by Steve Goodman.” She repeated my request and the song began. The version I have is from a live album, so it started with…
mercy drops who knows why old hymns rise to the surface but I found myself singing about showers of blessing for no apparent reason other than the rain hitting my windshield wipers keeping time until I got stuck on two words mercy drops I almost stopped and ran under the rain hoping to be drenched…
patina “people weather over the course of their lives . . .” Eva Meijer when I got my new carbon steel skillets they came pre-seasoned but without the scars a patina will develop with use the leaflet explained they will show their age like a copper pipe or a bronze statue the lichen on stone…
I’m three sermons into my series on the Lord’s Prayer and it is already changing how I hear and say the prayer. Reciting the words every week is playing with dynamite. Preaching through the prayer is opening up a spiritual journey for me that I was not expecting. I hope you find something here as…
I was just finishing up at the gym on Monday when I got a text from Ginger asking if I wanted to meet her for coffee at RJ Julia and read for a while. My answer, of course, was yes–the one catch being I didn’t have a book with me, but I was going to…
distance some days any distance is too much to traverse I can’t get there from here like today the text from one to say the cancer cannot be challenged any care will be palliative the picture from another of the dog who has died the dog who welcomed me always the absence carries like an…
Today was the second Sunday in my sermon series on the Lord’s Prayer and we talked about the opening sentence: “Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed by your name.” As I say in my opening, it was harder to prepare the sermon than I had anticipated. I was a bit surprised where the sermon…
Last January I wrote about one of the articles in the New York Times’ “7-Day Happiness Challenge” where one writer described “The Secret Power of the Eight Minute Phone Call” in rekindling a friendship. Someone she had not heard from in a long time asked for an eight minute phone call. The writer agreed, as…
poetic license all I wanted was some water when I stepped into the Spar a step up from the gas station convenience stores I know I walked past fresh produce and Irish baked goods a food counter and a coffee machine to be surprised by spring water that bore the name of W B Yeats…
I’ve been back from Ireland for a week and it has taken me that long to get back in the rhythm of the life I know. I preached on Sunday but am just now posting my sermon; my newsletter for the week will follow shortly. I am starting a summer sermon series on the Lord’s…