The basic premise of biblical trust is the conviction that God wants us to grow, to unfold, and to experience fullness of life. However, this kind of trust is acquired only gradually and most often through a series of crises and trials. Through the indescribably...
It helps me to remember that Jesus prayed for a miracle on the night before He died. “For you all things are possible,” he prayed to his Abba. “Remove this cup from me.” Only when he opened his eyes the cup was still there. Did he lack faith? I do not think so. The...
Genuine, untarnished, long-lasting living begins and is sustained when we know without a doubt that we can try, fail, try, fail, try, fail…and that God accepts and understands us. from Being Me
When I was a medical school professor, I invited my students to view their own experiences of sickness and medical care as a way to empathize with their patients’ experiences. Like them, we can prepare for our dying by “practicing” dying in response to situations of...
I no longer see the Christian life as being primarily about believing. The Christian life is about entering into a relationship with that to which the Christian points, which may be spoken of as God, the risen living Christ, or the Spirit. And a Christian is one who...
Meals are the settings in which families rehearse their stories, repeatedly trading tales and histories, realizing afresh what it means to be a Webber, a Clapp, or whomever. Without memory there is no identity or vision and so no personhood. The Eucharist is the...
The time of wondering whether you’ve truly been called to the ministry is over. The challenge is to know when God is calling and not the voice or ego or the expectations of family and friends. from commencement address to Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond...
The Lord bless you and keep you.The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. May God give you grace never to sell yourself short.Grace to risk something big for something good.Grace to remember that the world is now too dangerous for anything but...
Christianity is about water: “Everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.” It’s about baptism, for God’s sake. It’s about full immersion, about falling into something elemental and wet. Most of what we do in worldly life is geared toward our staying dry, looking...
The community of Christ is called and equipped in baptism. In baptism we are taught to find our strength in God and God’s people rather than ourselves. We are prepared for the shock of moral transformation by a cleansing, cold bath. We are born, drowned, adopted,...