Eugene Peterson is one of my favorite authors on spirituality and ministry. The quotation below will give you a sense of why I appreciate his wise simplicity: ?I want to simplify your lives. When others are telling you to read more, I want to tell you to read less. The world does not need more […]
Spiritual Practices: Cooperating with the True Gardener
?Contemplative practice is a skill, a discipline that facilitates a process that is out of one?s direct control, but it does not have the capacity to determine an outcome. A gardener for example, does not actually grow plants. The gardener practices finely honed skills, such as cultivating soil, watering, feeding, weeding, pruning. But there is […]
Leadership Practices: Answering Negative Thoughts
I have shared before that there is a cluster of negative thoughts that feel like constant and irritating adversaries. I?ve elsewhere called them the four horsemen: anxiety, fear, self-doubt and insecurity. In my less awake moments, I see them like the ring wraiths riding those dark horses in Lord of the Rings. In my more […]
How Disciplines Make Space for God
Henri Nouwen once offered a simple description of spiritual disciplines as ?the human effort to create open space to listen to the voice of the One who calls us the beloved.? A while back, I took time to reflect on a few spiritual disciplines I?ve practiced over the years. I wanted to think about how […]
What is Your Gut Image of God?
?And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, ?The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness,?maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers […]
Not Enough Horsepower?
?His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the speed of a?runner; ?but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love (Ps 147:10-11 NRSV).? The Lord is not watching for how much horsepower I produce or how fast I can […]
The Graced Work of Prayer
?Most of the problems relating to God?s will are already solved when we see prayer not as an effort to change it, but as loving communion which may help in the promotion of that will, whereas without the prayer it might be frustrated.? (Elton Trueblood. A Place to Stand. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, […]
