“Lord, I seek mystery, not a mishmash of existential thoughts, symbols and trendy quips. I cannot contain you, cannot begin to plumb the depths of your love, let alone the perplexing ways you work in the world. To one you heal, the other dies. Mother’s cry, fathers fume at the injustice they see. Where is…
The Chase for God
A while ago I got my hands on a very old copy of Moby Dick. Published in 1930, it contained breath-taking charcoal sketches. Quite unexpectedly, I grew more deeply in love with God with each turn of the page. You may ask, why? How? Isn’t it just a great work of literature about an obsessed…
“…the darkness has not overcome it.” John 1:5
The lantern of Love shines a brilliance Untested, unknown, unraveling and clear, Shines before the children of God To show that darkness never owns them. There will be seasons when light is dim There will be times of suffering There will be moments of doubt and fear There will be angels, dark and dangerous. Yet,…
The Violin-A Christmas Story
Place: New York City. A final Bible study before Christmas break. A group of young men who seem to really be tracking and growing, consistent…some of them straight off the streets, clawing their way up and out of some heavy stuff. Yet, Ace is missing, in fact for two weeks straight. The next day I…
Why?
Don’t be afraid to enter the ‘why?’ The great why question began with Jesus, when from the cross he asked God, “My God, my God, WHY have you forsaken me?” These why questions are too lofty to understand, and so we must sit and wait and contemplate, to see how the Lord will answer them. …
What is a Missionary?
What is a missionary? That’s easy, a person who travels the length of the world to tell others about Jesus, right? Yes, but to understand the true guts of a missionary, the spirit behind the action to “go and make disciples,” we need to understand something about blessings. When a person my age looks at…
A Beggar, and the beauty of Advent
I was standing in line for coffee, when to my left appeared a homeless man. His stench overwhelmed a normally aromatic space. People fidgeted, and he went straight to the counter, leaned in and spoke with the manager. I overheard him ask for a cup of coffee. The manager shook her head, and the beggar…
A Prayer For Those With Cancer
Abba, Tear Catcher and Boo-Boo-Made-Better- can we talk? Your friend is sick. An anomaly was found in the glare of an ex-ray image. That signals only one thing, you are about to move through time, not into it, but through it, as eternity cannot cohabitate with minutes and hours. In that movement, please carry their…
The Donut Hole
The rocks began to fall without warning. I was just able to clear myself from being crushed by a boulder, my legs taking a glancing impact, causing cuts and bruises. The hike was turning into something none of us had anticipated. Earlier that day we had set out to find the Donut Hole, a waterfall…
Emil and the Wiz-Bomb
My grandfather Emil was a medic in a battalion that entered the Argonne Forest, France in World War I. Months later, only 13 walked out whole, he among them. It was a ghostly and gangly squad of survivors of a hellish encounter with the enemy. Whether it was gas, or mortars, or hand to hand…
The Contagion of Joy
Of all the leaders I have ever known, Dr. Bill Bright, the founder and president of Cru, was the easiest for me to follow. I think it’s because I love to follow joy! Whenever I ever heard him speak, two things became apparent and found their way straight to my heart. His continuous call for…
Hard-Wired for Joy
God has hard-wired us for joy. This fruit of God’s Spirit sits ready to surprise and even overwhelm us, and is a sure sign of God’s presence. If we work at plumbing deeper depths of intimacy with God. If we fuel that ambition with love, with our hearts open to another shore. If we boldly…
To Sir, with love 