"What do you think? A man had two sons..." (Matthew 21:28) Jesus had a gift for exposing the human heart with breathtaking economy. In just five verses, the parable of the two sons cuts through our religious pretense and forces us to confront an uncomfortable question: Does our obedience to God match our words about God? The Story That Won't Let Us Off Easy The parable is deceptively simple. A father asks his two sons to work in the vineyard. The first son refuses outright w

T he Challenge of Being Ordinary “It’s so hard to be ordinary,“ I say to God as I wander down Addison’s Walk at Magdalen College in Oxford, retracing the steps of my beloved C S Lewis.   He walked this way often, “pondering”, the girl at the gate told me.   What words swirled in his mind as he walked, I wondered, words that graced his many insightful books  and the letters he wrote to friends and strangers alike sharing himself so freely?   So, I walk quietly in awe of the aw

When I first came to the States with my family, we were strangers in a strange land. We soon made friends with other immigrant couples and had lots of fun times together as families from foreign shores. Later I found out that the husband of one couple was an alcoholic and would go on drinking binges for up to a month. He managed to keep his job because he was a highly skilled pattern maker and much in demand. However he would often leave work and go straight to the local tave

“Let us be content, then, not with our wage, but with our Master. Let us find our joy not in being first or last, but simply in being found, in being hired, in being home.” I wonder how these words of Dom’s from the last post have impacted you. Our society is based on reward for work done. And our consumer culture has influenced our relationship with God; we tend to make our relationship with God a consumer one-- how can we get from God what we need for ourselves and for thos

On August 5, 2010, the world learned of a catastrophe deep beneath the surface of Chile’s Atacama Desert. The San José copper and gold mine had collapsed, trapping 33 men more than 2,000 feet underground. For 17 days, there was silence. The world feared the worst. Then, a miracle: a note attached to a probe sent deep into the earth read, “Estamos bien en el refugio, los 33,” which translates to, “We are well in the shelter, the 33 of us.” What followed was a marathon of huma

Jesus, the teller of unlikely stories. For those of us who have been around church for any length of time, these stories become familiar,...

There was a dirt path that cut through a field near where I used to live. I walked my dog there often. In the spring, after the rains, it...

A friend I was talking to recently had shared something that had happened the previous day that seemed like the proverbial “last straw”...

When I was a boy learning cello, I had a terrible habit that drove my teacher absolutely crazy. I would practice for hours, sawing away...

Revelation of my mistake: While researching for my next blog, I came across someone who pointed out that the man in the parable of the...

My sister in New Zealand and I in Oregon meet daily on the phone for morning prayer. We are following the liturgical style of worship...

I was meeting with someone in spiritual direction who had spent months trying to "fix" what they called their "spiritual defects." They...

I was out in my garden bed last month, feeling pretty proud of my early spring planting. I'd carefully sown arugula and started some...

Do you ever find yourself discouraged by your life and your impact, or lack thereof, on others? Do you look at what others are doing and...

I met with a ministry leader recently for spiritual direction. After some months of learning about their relationship with God, she...

In our junk drawer, I found a packet of wildflower seeds. I received them at a wedding years ago and never got around to planting them....

What do you imagine as you pray, “Your Kingdom come on earth as in heaven”? How do we enter this Kingdom and then live each day as...

A few weeks ago, I sat with a woman in spiritual direction. She was tired. Not just physically tired, but soul weary. Her words came...

Stories have the power to change our lives. The narratives we listen to and believe shape everything about our lives. Jesus was a master...

So, you have God’s armor-- remember it is His, not yours! Yet daily the invitation is “to put on the full armor of God so that you can...