I began playing guitar when I was 13 years-old because I wanted to create beautiful music. Do you believe me? Well, to my 13 year-old hormone-addled mind, I began playing for something much more critical than the gift of beautiful music to the world?girls. Little did I realize that the chords I was learning and […]
Am I Handing Out Un-Lived Information?
?The vessel God wants for his work is not prepared by hearing a lot of things, but by seeing and receiving and being satisfied. Its understanding is based on the life of Christ within, not on information about him. We must beware of just passing on to others what we hear. No matter how precious […]
The Scent of Prayer
I remember as a child my hands used to get so chapped and dry they bled. As Mom rubbed them with lotion I’d cry. But then they would always get better. As I drive toward the coast, California looks that way. Her landscape, so cracked and brittle from lack of water looks ready to cry […]
Morning Rhythms
One of the practices that I find especially soul-nourishing is reading the daily lectionary in the mornings. The lectionary provides four readings: 1) a psalm, 2) an Old Testament reading, 3) a general reading from the New Testament and 4) a gospel passage. The daily lectionary provides a cycle of readings that last three years […]
Creativity is Unhurried
One thing I?ve learned in the course of taking and leading days of unhurried time and space with God is that true creativity cannot be hurried. A while back, my wife stumbled across a book in the library by Brenda Ueland on writing?If You Want to Write. She wrote it in 1938, but her voice […]
Invitation by Season
Most mornings I walk our dog, Lex, up and down our neighborhood street. A while back, I noticed that one of our neighbors was getting rid of some shrubs in front of her home. As time progressed, I saw the dirt being prepared, as dark plastic went down and bark chips went on. Then one […]
Perfectionism Paralyzes
Perfectionism is damaging to the human venture because it cuts the nerve of all effort. If I refuse to participate in an operation until I can approve every part of it, I shall wait forever. This is the meaning of the initially mystifying aphorism to the effect that the ideal best is the enemy of […]
