I like this prayer: “Dear God, I have no idea where I’m going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself… and the fact that I think that I am following your will Does…

There’s something about the Baal Shem Tov (1698- 1760), a Jewish mystic and rabbi who founded the Hasidic movement, that has been an inspiration, model and even a guide for me. Here was a man steeped in Torah and Bible, deeply knowledgeable and wise. Thousands flocked to hear him teach…

I watched the tail end of one of my favorite movies last night: Babette’s Feast. I absolutely love that whole feast sequence. I was powerfully moved by Babette’s selfless generosity to do what she loves doing: being a chef. She generously and sacrificially spent all 10,000 francs of her lottery…

Jeanne Murray Walker in her essay, “Breaking the Illusions: What Playwrights Owe to Actors,” in the journal IMAGE (summer, 2005): “Kafka said that art is like an ax that chops through the frozen sea within us” (p.88). This is why I write, play, and listen to music. This is why…

“This is eternal life, that they may know you” (John 17:3). This verse got me thinking the other day about the fullness of life in the here and now. Then I read Chambers sometime this weekend, and he also says that knowing God in Christ is “one amazing, glorious NOW!”…

Listen to this passage from N. T. Wright’s, What Saint Paul Really Said: “A brief word about love. Paul does not mean that all Christians should feel warm fuzzy feelings for each other. That romantic and existentialist reading of agape does not begin to capture what is really going on.…

The August 10th entry in Oswald Chamber’s My Utmost For His Highest is a commentary on 1 Peter 4:19, a difficult verse to read, understand, and live: “Let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good…” Chambers says, “Choosing to suffer…

I read Oswald Chamber’s My Utmost For His Highest this morning, as I do most mornings. I love the sheer honesty of his insights. In today’s entry he comments on Revelation 1:17: “And when I saw Him, I fell at his feet as dead.” “It may be that like the…

In Elie Wiesel’s book, Night, he relates a story of a man called Moishe. They would have theological discussions now and then. Moishe asked Elie who he prayed to and why. Elie asked Moishe the same question in return. Moishe said, “I pray to the God within me for the…

I’ve been thinking a bit about ministry and what it means to be a pastor. I keep asking myself the question: “Is it possible for all kinds of different people to dwell together in unity?” That is, can a particular local church be made up of a wide variety of…