“A Harvest of Goodness”

Some more Eugene Peterson quotes to provide a contrast to last night’s post. By contrast, “he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit inherit eternal life.” Sowing to the Spirit opposes sowing to the flesh. It is a life that is lived openly and responsibly–a life of mutuality. Spirit is that aspect of [...]

Free from Self = Free to be Myself

I’ve been blogging in my head for weeks. Funny how the posts never show up here when I do it that way. The other day I finished reading another Eugene Peterson non-fiction book, Traveling Light. It’s his articulate-as-usual commentary on the book of Galatians. And (no surprise to me now) it’s excellent. While there are [...]

checking my baggage

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). I read this verse the other day and later, maybe while I was washing dishes or in the shower (I don’t remember exactly), I thought about it again. We often use the term “baggage” to describe past [...]

perfect story

The need [for story] is not for the total consolation of narcotic fantasy–our own will performed in airless triumph–but for the credible news that our lives proceed in order toward a pattern which, if tragic here and now, is ultimately pleasing in the mind of a god who sees a totality and at last enacts [...]

no good thing

I’m loving Sara’s music these days. I am thankful for artists whose lyrical truths resound as I listen and absorb – and confess them back to God. This music is healing to my soul. “Open My Hands” Sara Groves I believe in a blessing I don’t understand I’ve seen rain fall on wicked and the [...]

mirage or hoax?

What do you think? Today I’ve been puzzling over this, but I have my personal suspicions. See for yourself. Even if this one is a hoax, I have decided it would be fun to see a real mirage someday. (Much better than seeing a tornado.)

on behalf of a friend

My friend Erin is a book review blogger and her review has garnered enough votes to put her in the running for first place in a contest. Would you take a moment to vote for her review so that she can stay in first place and so that I can have the pure enjoyment of [...]

in the middle

I love this man’s writing. Here is a paragraph from the preface of the book I just began reading. It’s worth a good think. People who live by faith have a particularly acute sense of living “in the middle.” We believe that God is at the beginning of all things, and we believe that God [...]

on time, and growing up: part 3 (and that’s the end)

Holding my friend’s baby close to my chest, sensing her small lungs breathe in and out, I pause. The pace of the rushing world slows to an even flow of baby’s breath; gently in, gently out. When I am near someone so small, who is only in the first chapter of her book of life, [...]

on time, and being grown up: part 2

Yes, I miss the easy trusting of childhood. Back then, I didn’t question the likelihood of future blessings. I didn’t think much about the future at all. Children have a far better ability to live in the present than adults do. Kids can become absorbed in imaginative worlds of play; they have the patience for [...]