One Thousand Words - Stories On The Way

Jesus says, “The Father is seeking worshipers who worship in spirit and truth.” What does that mean? What kind of relationship does God hope to have with us? I'm looking at Psalm 88 and John 4 for clues about life, God, and real connection in love. How do the (often uncomfortable things) God chooses not to edit out of his book demonstrate his vulnerability and invite us to be vulnerable with him?...

I just finished reading Stanley Hauerwas’ “The Character of Virtue: Letters to a Godson”. In it, he describes the virtues as the characteristics formed in us by practices that accompany a particular narrative in which we have been located. How then does inhabiting the Christian story transform us as we bear that story out in our very lives - our bodies, decisions, and so on? The post S3:E26 – Your...

In Part 3 of "Your Place in the Story", having already talked about the necessity of church participation, I’m looking at how saturating ourselves in the Scriptures and in Prayer gives us the wisdom to joyfully and beautifully improvise... to enact this storyline on the stage of our lives alongside others, to jam along with the song God is singing over us, or to join the Trinity in their conversat...

How do we find our place in the Story Jesus is telling? Beginning last week, I started a series of episodes exploring that theme. In part one, I talked about how, broadly speaking, liturgies are simply a human phenomenon (even apart from religion) that work a story into our bones. And this week, I’m jumping off from there exploring how the unnoticed narratives we involve ourselves in name us - for...

Everybody does liturgies - inside and outside the church. I’m thinking of a liturgy as any shared practice or discipline that situates us within a particular narrative that gives our life context and meaning. Liturgies provide language, images, events, and storyline. They work that stuff down into our bones, until whatever story we’re practicing becomes the measure for everything. The next few wee...

This week, we welcome singer/songwriter Nicole Kelley. Her disarming and wise way of talking about Jesus made me think how much I’d love to get her to share something here, and this week she’ll be talking about Peter’s faith and failures and how Jesus’s steadfast grace gives us permission to let go of regret and "press on toward the prize" as Paul says. Nicole's new album "Canyon Wide" is availabl...

Sometimes we forget that God works through regular people to get things done. The Bible didn’t just magically appear out of nowhere; God invited real people throughout history to join in his long redemptive work. In the Bible, we see evidence of it. This week, I’ll share how I’ve experienced that personally, and some thoughts on how God provides for us through Creation, wisdom, and friendship. The...

This week, I wanted to read a letter I wrote almost exactly one year ago today. I was feeling all the dismay and bewilderment of that moment as lockdowns began, and I wrote this piece for the Spring 2020 Issue of The Cultivating Project. The Lord can enter into and redeem absolutely anything, if he can transform the cross and the grave. So, though I don’t see how, I know he’s not dismayed or bewil...

...But wait, there's more! It's still Easter, or Easter-tide, all the way till Pentecost on May 23rd! So, today I'm sharing two interrelated readings on the theme of Easter Joy. One from Alexander Schmemann that I'll read, and one from Lewis's "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" read beautifully and joyfully by Kirstin Jeffrey Johnson. We may weep, yes, but since Christ has come we have a "sec...

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia! Well, friends, thank so much for walking through this week with me. I've really needed it, personally. In this last Holy Week episode, Amy Baik Lee will read her piece "In the space of a single word", Son of Laughter (Chris Slaten) will sing "The Gardener", Kirstin Jeffrey Johnson will read John Updike's poem "Seven Stanzas at Easter", and...

What do we do with this strange, suspended Saturday? This in-between time, this "Nondum" or "not-yet" time, after Jesus's death but before his Resurrection? For his first followers there was no certainty of what was to come. Surely, this silent Saturday is a part of Jesus's gift to us, too, right along with Friday and Sunday? I'll talk a little about that, read a poem, Taylor Leonhardt will share...

This is Crucifixion Day, Good Friday. This is a hard day, because Jesus’s brutalized face, faces us with the truth about ourselves - asking us to face him with our true faces, and discover that an unexpected new life is possible in Him. Amy Lee will share "The Blood-bought gift of loneliness", I'll sing a song, and Brian Brown will read T.S. Eliot's "East Coker IV" and close us in prayer. Join us...

It's Maundy Thursday. "Maundy" means mandate or command, and this is the day Jesus washes his disciples' feet and mandates that they love as he has loved them. The Last Supper takes place today, after which Jesus prays at Gethsemane in anguish as his disciples fall asleep. Then he is betrayed with a kiss and arrested. Today, Chris Slaten (Son of Laughter) will sing for us, we'll hear from Amy Baik...

On this Wednesday of Holy Week, I wonder how lonely Jesus felt? No one really gets what he's doing. But then Mary breaks the jar of costly perfume. She gets it somehow, and is promptly attacked by the others for her "foolishness". Today, we'll look at Mary's beautiful act, Taylor Leonhardt will sing a Mission House song, my friend Grace Andrews will read George Herbert, and Brian Brown will close...

On this Tuesday of Holy Week, I'm trying something different. I'm sharing a fictional imagining of Jesus as he camps outside Jerusalem, remembering the promises made to Abraham so long ago and how they are about to be fulfilled, finally in himself. I'll also share a song, Malcolm Guite will read a sonnet, and Brian Brown will close us in prayer. Join us every day this week as we walk our story tog...

This Monday of Holy Week, we continue walking with Jesus to the cross. So far he's wept over Jerusalem, entered to short-lived praise, and now he makes his way to the City's broken heart, the Temple. I'll share a reflection and a song, Malcolm Guite will recite a sonnet, and Brian Brown of The Anselm Society will close us in prayer. Join us every day this week. The post S3:E12 – Holy Week: Monday,...

This is Palm Sunday. Our Story begins today with Jesus, having resolutely turned his face toward Jerusalem, entering that City to shouts of praise that he knows will quickly change to shouts of condemnation. But He knows exactly what he is doing; he has come to die. I'll read a passage from Frederick Buechner and sing a song, Malcolm Guite will read one of his sonnets, and Brian Brown will pray fr...

Yesterday around a friend's Sunday Dinner table, I tasted "Luella's Rice" for the first time and saw that it was good. My friend's old family recipe brought something good from the past into the present and awakened a hungry hope for a future feast. This week, I'm wondering if the church is like a kitchen where we apprentice, through Scriptural doctrines, practices, and fellowship, learning to coo...

This week, I'm remembering something Eugene Peterson said that showed me how we take on a lot of pressure to perform like machines; but we’re not machines, we’re people. Christianity’s emphasis on the grace revealed in Jesus - who, at the crucifixion, puts the locus of human identity on the fact of our belovedness, means we are precious completely independent of our performance, productivity, or a...

A dear friend of mine was asked, “What is the most lovely and beautiful future you could possibly imagine that the Lord might provide for you?” This week, I'm asking if the imagination might be a place where we keep pictures of what life could be like, and how good relationships, stories, and art can help ‘hang hopeful pictures’ on the wall for us. And I’ll end with Holly Ordway's sonnet "A Sudden...

This week, I’m thinking about how we are called to work in faith, because we rarely are able to see how our part fits meaningfully into any larger story. Life and love can feel like a waste of time, but even at our lowest points God is at work in and through us, bringing his Great Tale to life in this world. I’ll share a little from the Book of Job and one personal story of how Jesus has encourage...

Welcome to special guest essayist, Leslie Anne Bustard! Leslie is a mom, wife, writer, and a publisher with Square Halo Books. She'll be sharing an original poem and essay. Regarding her essay, Leslie says, "When I was a homeschooling mom of three daughters, I believed I could manufacture, through the right schedule or the right books, perfect days of learning and loving. But God had deeper lesson...

David Lyle Jeffrey says, "God is a poet" and quotes John Donne, saying ours is "'a very figurative and metaphorical God.' How he speaks, not just what he says, becomes an important measure of who he is." This week, I'm thinking about how poetry, and the arts in general, are practiced by Jesus, and given to us as a means of making our imaginations more roomy for Himself and the things His love make...

A few days back, my friend Amy Lee introduced me to the Greek New Testament word "splagchnizomai", which is a kind of gut-wrenching ache of compassion and longing for someone. That helped me think about my newest release "Gone Too Long". So, this week, I'm ruminating on "splagchnizomai" as it relates to the story behind that song, and I'll share the song itself to close the episode. The post S3:E4...

Last night, my friends and I that meet weekly started reading one of my favorite books - Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton. This is one of the main books that I go back to again and again when I get stuck and can’t believe in joy. There are few books I find as refreshing. So in this episode, I’m thinking about how easy it is to get stuck in a world that’s no bigger than the globe of my own head. How I...