We convince ourselves that life will be better after we get married, have a baby, then another. Then we are frustrated that the kids aren't old enough, and we'll be more content when they are. After that, we're frustrated that we have teenagers to deal with. We will...
At my Christian elementary school, we sang, “Jesus loves the little children…red and yellow, black and white, all are precious in his sight.” In alignment with this song, white people often professed, “I don’t even see color,” reassuring me that I would be safe from...
One Song Every war and every conflictbetween human beings has happenedbecause of some disagreement about names.It is such an unnecessary foolishness,because just beyond the arguingthere is a long table of companionshipset and waiting for us to sit down.What is praised...
What to do with our losses? . . . We must mourn our losses. We cannot talk or act them away, but we can shed tears over them and allow ourselves to grieve deeply. To grieve is to allow our losses to tear apart feelings of security and safety and lead us to the painful...
A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words.
Luther said, "Remember your baptism." How can people do that? In Luther's church, most of the baptisms were of infants. They were brought by their mothers and fathers and they were baptized. So how could they remember their baptisms? Luther knew that when they became...
The use of song as a vehicle for conveying the Word of God has biblical precedent. It comes from a vignette near the end of the Israelite wandering in the wilderness. Moses and Joshua were summoned to the Tent of Meeting to receive final instructions from God before...
For many believers--and even communities of faith--congregational song has played an important role in shaping the content of faith and in facilitating the remembering of that faith. It has been a recurring testimony that in times of sorrow, crisis, or need, assurance...
Soul work is not a high road. It's a deep fall into an unforgiving darkness that won't let you go until you find the song that sings you home.
There is a trend towards singing songs addressed to a Jesus who has been stripped of any references to the narrative that makes him who he is. Such songs speak of a "Lord" called "Jesus" who makes the singers feel loved and accepted, but often there is no reference to...