Matthew tells us that on an evening during Passover Jesus and his closest 12 friends joined around a dinner table to share a very special meal – although at that moment only Jesus knew how special it was. With sorrow but certainty Jesus looked from one of these friends to another. He caught their eyes and perhaps smiled, perhaps just looked into their souls as he could do so well. They waited in t…
I know very little about sheep. They are cute and fuzzy and make funny noises. I have sweaters because they have donated their fuzziness. They graze in fields. To me, all sheep look alike; I can’t tell them apart. I don’t know any more about the shepherds who take care of the sheep. I always assumed that being a shepherd involved things like feeding them and getting them safely from their pens and…
Were you afraid of anything when you were a child? Perhaps you were afraid of a variety of ghosts and goblins or the dark (where you were afraid that you would meet the ghosts and goblins). Or perhaps you were afraid of some other things. Fear is common for children as they navigate an often strange world with so many new things that they don’t yet understand. And the fear persists until someone o…
We live in such a fast-paced, often harried, world. We are constantly running someplace to get something done. Driving to work I am amazed daily at the drivers who swerve in and out of lanes, exceeding the speed limits, only to get one or two car lengths ahead of me. At those moments I wonder what is so urgent that they are willing to risk their safety and that of those sharing the road with…
Let’s talk about fasting. Fasting as a spiritual discipline so often connotes not eating some or all food for an extended period of time. While fasting certainly can, and often does, involve reduced food intake that is not always the case, nor is that the reason for fasting. So, let’s talk about fasting: why we do it, not what it often involves. Fasting, as a spiritual discipline, is about sel…
