Hello, my friends! One of the things I love so much about Psalm 122 is the realization that the journey to Jerusalem is not a solitary pilgrimage, but instead a group effort. The Psalmist writes, I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the LORD!” One of the greatest…
Navigating the Slough of Despond Hello, my friends. During this time of quarantine, one of the things I’ve been doing is rereading. I’ve been going back to books that I’ve read and experienced before that have given me comfort and perspective and meaning over the years. And because we’ve been studying the Psalms of Ascent, which…
“I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.” Robert Frost Did you know that Robert Frost wrote this poem, The Road Not Taken, as a joke? Seriously, he wrote…
Hello my friends! It is Easter week and today it definitely feels like spring. A clear, bright morning with lots of birds chirping away outdoors. It is a hard day to be inside. I think quarantine is easier when it is wet and rainy outside. Days like today beckon us to come out into the splendor and beauty…
Hello my friends! I wanted to encourage you today with a hymn that I was listening to during my morning devotional time. It is called I Need Thee Every Hour and you can listen to my friend Fernando sing it here. I was so struck by this first verse: I need Thee every hour, Most gracious Lord;…
“Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” Zechariah 9:9 Hello, my friends! Tomorrow is Palm Sunday! How I wish we were gathering in person and folding palm crosses together! So many of our traditions…
Hello, my friends! Just checking in…how’re you all holding up out there? Today we had our weekly check in time with the staff and it was wonderful to get a glimpse of each other’s faces. I sure love our team and miss our times together praying in the upper room, but I know we’ll be back…
Hello my friends! First, let me just say how much I miss seeing all your faces! I know that all of us are growing weary of this, to say the least. We’ve all been doing our best to stay active or busy or creative while feeling caged in and isolated. And any of the allure for this as a season of rest has vanished. All…
Hello my friends! I wanted to share with you something I was reading this morning from Jacques Phillippe’s book on peace. He writes this, “One of the affirmations of faith that should permanently reside in us is that all the reasons that cause us to lose our sense of peace are bad reasons. This conviction is most…
Hello, my friends! These letters are starting to feel more like field notes…all of us are navigating unfamiliar territory. Just know you aren’t alone. Each one of us is experiencing the whole range of emotions right now. And sometimes emotions can feel like cars flying past us and we are somehow there in the middle of traffic,…