9/29/2023

Whenever I start youth group with a “spiritual grounding,” I often get a chuckle out of middle schoolers in particular, one of whom may take the opportunity to respond, “Why are you grounding us? We didn’t do anything wrong!”

8/29/2023

At this point in the fall when you are skimming this devotional I imagine the program year is well underway. Kickoff, rally day or homecoming day, a distant memory buried under the weekly calendar of events that lists all the activities of the church ranging from AA meetings to committee meetings, choir rehearsals to staff check-ins, youth fellowship and fellowship hour. Of course, we can’t forget worship on Sunday mornings.

8/4/2023

My curiosity is piqued while looking at the lectionary readings for August. We begin with a reading in Genesis where Jacob has seemingly wrestled with God—and with humans—and has prevailed.

6/21/2023

There is an unofficial, but very competitive race where I live in western Pennsylvania. For home gardeners, it is the race for the first home-grown ripe tomato. The goal is to have your first ripe tomato by July 4th and, of course, bragging rights with all the other neighbors. The first person to harvest that beauty is sure to post a picture on social media and expound on the loveliness of that first ripe tomato.

6/1/2023

I am 8 months into a new call and I am exhausted.

Last August, I packed up 17 years of life in Chicago, along with a husband and two children, to begin a new chapter in San Francisco.

5/3/2023

The legacy of the opportunity present in the resurrection is ours, and we must do the work that will pass that legacy to the next generation and the one after that.

4/3/2023

We’re still called to embody God’s love for this messy broken world by coming together, by knowing each other, by loving each other. Even, especially, when we disagree.

3/1/2023

Is there still an Epiphany? As we take up our Lenten journey to the tomb and dig deep, one more time, to proclaim what lies beyond it, hoping we can speak with something like the conviction we had the first time we told the wondrous outcome?

2/1/2023

Almost two months ago, we got a puppy. At now 5 months, she’s the most adorable thing—a Bernedoodle (mom is a Bernese Mountain Dog and dad is a Poodle). She’s soft and incredibly calm and so lovable, in fact, the vet called her an amazing dog as far as her personality and demeanor.

1/4/2023

New Year. New ways of living. New opportunities to grow. New eyes to see what is happening among us and around us.

11/29/2022

What tears have you shed as of late? Are they still captured inside only to come out at an inopportune time?

10/27/2022

Soon we will “fall back” an hour.