So the line had stuck in my head. “Sex,” I was pretty sure, meant whether you were a boy or girl, and “sin” made Tante Jans very angry, but what the two together meant I could not imagine. And so, seated next to Father in the train compartment, I suddenly asked,...
God, the Artist Thou takest the pen– and the lines dance. Thou takest the flute– and the notes shimmer. Thou takest the brush– and the colours sing. So all things have meaning and beauty in that space beyond time where Thou art. How, then, can I hold back anything...
Slow me down, Lord.Ease the pounding of my heart by the quieting of my mind.Steady my hurried pace with a vision of the eternal reach of time.Give me, amid the confusion of the day, the calmness of the everlasting hills.Break the tensions of my nerves and muscles with...
As the characters in the story maintain a safe distance from Jesus, speculating among themselves about this new powerful teacher, readers of Mark are invited to follow Jesus into a whole new world, says New Testament scholar Brian Blount, into "Mark's world of Jesus...
Everyone around you; the people you share the grocery store line with, pass in traffic, sit next to at work, encounter on social media, and see across the kitchen table--are all experiencing the collateral damage of living.
My favorite lines about Christ's "Second Coming" are in the story "A Christmas Memory," by Truman Capote. In this autobiographical piece of great delicacy, the author describes his last Christmas with the woman who brought him up. The author is seven at the time; she...
The only clear line I draw these days is this: When my religion tries to come between me and my neighbor, I will choose my neighbor. …Jesus never commanded me to love my religion.