Today we had about 50 families with tables in the church parking lot selling “treasures” and all sorts of crafts. It was part of our church’s effort to help families address concerns over the economic downturn. Early this morning, as I arrived to...
I have been getting on the job training as a Christian educator for over 5 years through my church and completed my work toward certification as a Christian educator in May. But recently, as I began to explore the possibility of ordination as a deacon, I opted for the...
“There are remedies for the soul’s ills in the Christian faith. Both psychiatry and psychotherapy literally mean “soul healing” (psychology literally means “the study of the soul”). Until recently, soul healing was understood to be part...
Several years ago a friend of mine suddenly went blind, with no other symptoms. She was rushed to the hospital where it was discovered she’d suffered a stroke. Gradually she regained about 30-40% of her vision. A news report came out this past week about a pilot...
When I have attended United Methodist events, the prayer rooms all seem to have a common feature- a labyrinth. It seems that some with a spiritual bent all seem to think that we should be walking the labyrinth to connect with God.”The term labyrinth is often...
I have been a student of the Matthean Beatitudes scripture since my own Holy Spirit-directed encounter with it several years ago. I have had several conversations with my associate pastor, who prefers the Lukan rendition of “blessings and woes”. He is from...
A few weeks ago I was listening to a program on NPR and heard part of an essay about an encounter with a mountain lion being read by Craig Childs, a desert dwelling naturalist from Arizona who’s written a book on his encounters with animals-. The Animal...
This week I had another specific example of how God works in my life….how He shows his providential hand and his love. After three weeks of driving a man to the county’s remote jail annex site weekly to visit his girlfriend, he was jailed, too…..both...
While in a psychology class, one of the assignments was to draw a picture that represented one’s life. I drew the doodle shown here. The hand with the heart represents, for me, God’s love and providential work in my life. The other symbols are medical...
Recently, I was going through some worship books I’d accumulated from participating in weekends at a Christian retreat camp. I came across one with notes in the back cover that I’d written on April 22, 2005. It was during a Friday morning communion service...
