After tragedy has occurred to us, fallen upon us, how do we walk on, lacing up those painful shoes I talked about in my poor analogy? How do we carry on, day after day? We must begin by being open to and accepting the grace that is offered to us. I […]
Suffering and Grace
51 posts
“It is what it is.” A phrase people utter when they are enduring a hardship or, just as often, when there is a problem they would rather not deal with. It is what it is. A horrible, trite phrase. Used all the time, devoid of any real meaning, and all […]
Yesterday’s epistle (in the RCL) was Philippians 4:1-9. The preacher at Good Shepherd, Lexington was the Rev. Canon Elise Johnstone. Good Shepherd is beginning a time of transition as their rector, Brian Cole, was called to be the Bishop of Eastern Tennessee. The Canon preached on this passage from Philippians […]
We are in Year A of the lectionary and coming up on the Third Sunday of Easter. The epistle for this season is 1 Peter and I sat down to read it through. Many of you have likely read it or at least have seen verses picked here and there […]
The start of a new calendar year is a reminder that we are constantly entering into a new era of our lives: an era without some that we love, an era with a new job or career, a time with a different government, a period of growth and change. Always […]
I am working my way through D. A. Carson’s How Long, O Lord? In his section on “The Suffering People of God” Carson deals carefully and gently with what I consider the heart of the problem for the suffering of the faithful. How do we know what is “discipline” from God and what is, […]
Reading D. A. Carson’s How Long, O Lord is bringing me to terms with some of the more basic premises that I was raised with, that on some level I still believe, but when taken to an extreme I realize are not only problematic, but wrong. For example, Carson here is […]
Faith plays a major role in grief of any kind. But not in the way some people think. They often seem to have the idea that a person with strong faith does not grieve and is above this sort of thing. Moreover, these people imply that religious faith advocates stoicism. […]
This is the paper I presented to the Chronicle-Ezra-Nehemiah and Exile combined session. I was invited to speak about how the destruction and restoration of Jerusalem can be understood through the waters of Katrina. I have images that go with this (see a few images from Katrina at my flickr […]
That is what I always thing of when I hear the word “retreat.” I helped out (last minute addition) with a teen retreat in Central PA. The area was gorgeous and it was a lot of fun. Sharing a cabin with 8 barely pubescent boys, however, never gets better. The […]