The unofficial start of summer is here! Picnics and parades, flags and fireworks, hot dogs and hamburgers, watermelon and waterslides—this weekend we will remember and celebrate our freedom, our country, our family and friends, and our many, many blessings. Memorial Day reminds us that no matter...
There is a magnet on my refrigerator that says, “Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about learning to dance in the rain.” It has felt a bit like I am standing under a rain cloud of late. So far this week I’ve...
This Sunday is Mother’s Day. If you reside in the United States, you practically have to live under a rock not to know this. Florists are in high gear, restaurants will be in “all hands on deck” mode, and I can only imagine what the...
Whew! Easter Sunday is over. Every church musician, support staff, and pastor is breathing a sigh of relief this week. Don’t get me wrong—it was awesome, jubilant, over-the-top, fabulous, joyous. Even the superlatives need superlatives to describe our Day of Resurrection festivities. I was thrilled...
Resurrection. New life. Second chances. Redemption. A fresh start. These are all good ways to talk about the meaning of Easter. Last Sunday, what churches call Palm Sunday or Passion Sunday, marked the beginning of Holy Week. During this week Christians trace Jesus’ journey from his...
It is ten days until Easter. Ten days to complete our Lenten journey, to contemplate Jesus’ act of sacrificial love that will end on a cross next Friday. Whether it has felt like a long forty days to you, or whether the time seems to...
Do you ever feel like you are a little (or a lot) “late to the party”? This happens to me with some frequency, in part because I don’t watch a lot of television and I’m not very social media savvy. The most recent occasion of...
The first day of school. The first daffodil poking its head through the winter-hardened earth. The first summer peach. I love the “firsts” that signal the start of something new—the changing seasons, the turning of the calendar, one rhythm giving way to another. Today is one...
An airplane crashes in Ethiopia on March 10 killing all 157 people on board. A shooter opens fire at a Muslim mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand on March 15 killing fifty. Cyclone Idai ravages Mozambique on March 19, with 300 already reported dead, but some...
was recently introduced to a new “app”. It’s called “WeCroak” (wecroak.com). It’s not about bullfrogs. It’s about mortality and death. It’s based on a Bhutanese folk saying that to be a happy person, you need to contemplate death five times a day. And so, five...