This month my spiritual discipline has been exercising. I’ve decided that it’s about goal setting. I made a goal last week to be able to complete a 5 k within a ½ hour, and I’ve achieved it. My goal is now to work on being able to do the same run, without Read More...
This month I’m working on my spiritual discipline of exercising. If you know me you will not be shocked to know that exercise is rarely (if ever) on my priority list. Friends gasp when I order a salad, people applaud when I tell them that I actually ran, and I find my Read More...
A young man visited the great theologian, Martin Luther. This man was worried that he may be committing a sin without knowing it. He was concerned that he may be sent to eternal fire for something he didn’t even realize he was doing wrong. This poor guy had almost no faith. He Read More...
When we read people’s Facebook pages, see people on TV, and walk down the street…doesn’t it seem like everyone is ridiculously happy all the time? I’m slowly coming to realize that not every moment of every day can be filled with the pure joy and doing exactly what we want to do. Read More...
While on retreat a few weeks ago with a group known as The Desert Brothers one of the guys showed the rest of us an ad from a magazine. It was a promo piece for Bose earphones. The ad said: you’ll love what you hearand what you don’t. Excitedly he said, “I Read More...
When I reflected on what I celebrated this week it revolved around the fact that I’m in love with this city. I’m in love with Kansas City, what isn’t there to love about it? This week I got to see some beautiful art when I went to a play with a dear Read More...
Elizabeth Weil observes what is happening in the world of young people. In order to get ready for these new days she writes, “Prepare to feel obsolete. It’s the first step to moving ahead.” The first time I read that I put a question mark in the margin. The next time I Read More...
A friend of mine in ministry was leading a stewardship campaign. He told his congregation about the studies of Elizabeth Kubler Ross. She was a trailblazer in the study of how people die. Some of her work seems simple now but she was a pioneer. When she reviewed the thousands of interviews Read More...
This past month I’ve been focusing on taking time for Sabbath rest for myself. The other day I was sitting in a coffee shop reading scripture and someone asked what I was doing. I told them that I was taking some Sabbath time. This person knows what I do for a Read More...
I was truly stunned when I drove into Joplin Sunday afternoon. There is a big gapping whole in the center of the city where 7500 homes were destroyed. The land is unbelievably flat because all the trees are gone. So you can see for miles – all the way across town to Read More...
This month I am focusing on Sabbath as my spiritual discipline. Doing your taxes doesn’t sound like Sabbath, but I did everything I could to avoid having to do this very scary task. Numbers have always scared me. My best friend works at the coffee shop that I frequent, and when he Read More...
Easter asks us to name what we worry about and bring it to God. Easter asks us to face the things that we are afraid of the most (like death and taxes!) and place them on a cross shaped altar. Easter says “forget about being in control and give yourself to God.” Read More...
This week in my Sabbath-keeping I decided that I was going to maintain reading in a coffee shop. One of the reasons that I like reading in a coffee shop so much is the community that naturally begins to form as you sit and enjoy coffee. There are baristas with interesting stories, Read More...
This month I am focusing on taking some Sabbath rest for myself as a spiritual discipline. To me taking Sabbath rest doesn’t have to be a full day, but it does need to be time taken in the week to rest with Spirit. Sabbath is about taking time to feed your spirit. Read More...
