Scattering Life

March Madness basketball is cancelled, but it is playing out all around us. Store shelves are empty of hand sanitizer and toilet paper. The President just declared a national emergency. It really is a difficult and scary time. And it is all changing so quickly. As your pastor, I am stumbling through these days. Just […]

Hinge

degaje — Haitian phrase “to make do with what you have” Jenny, our missionary in Haiti, stays in a simple two room house when in the mountain community. One room is used to store tools, the other for her bed and kitchen. There was a small courtyard, but the fence was falling down (I use […]

Finding Peace

I misplaced my wedding ring on Tuesday. This is fairly common routine. I bought Tiles for my keys and wallet… alas, they don’t make a wedding ring Tile! I looked everywhere I could imagine — combing the carpet, un-piling laundry — but eventually gave up and left for the office. Later Meg shot me this […]

Taxes and Fuel

“That is the key to history. Terrific energy is expended – civilizations are built up – excellent institutions devised; but each time something goes wrong. Some fatal flaw always brings the selfish and cruel people to the top and it all slides back into misery and ruin. In fact, the machine conks. It seems to […]

Tents

In two weeks we leave for Haiti. Into the mountains to build a medical clinic. Away from our normal base camp — Jenny’s Villa is on the beach near the ocean with palm trees — we are taking tents. True camping. I should probably pack marshmallows… and tarantula repellent! For some this would be a […]

Fear Virus

As I drove the girls to school, NPR reported in the background. More about coronavirus. Phoebe and I were talking, barely noticing, but Darcy stopped us, “what are they talking about?!” I explained it was a new virus making people sick in China. She had overheard people died. I told her not to worry, “only […]

What do you want?

With a group of deacons, I am reading Phileena Heuertz’s book Mindful Silence. At the end of each chapter she outlines a specific prayer. The second chapter asks us to spend time in silence picturing the scene of Blind Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46-52). Bartimaeus cries out, but the crowd silences him, pushes him back. Yet Jesus […]

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