I have been surrounded by death this week. Okay, I know that is not the cheeriest of ways to begin a blog, but stay with me for a moment. Yesterday marked the third anniversary of my father’s death. Today would have been his 80th birthday, had...
We begin the season of Lent with a special Taizé service on Ash Wednesday (February 26). We are welcoming Mt.Vernon, Bush Hill, & Heritage Presbyterian Churches for a soup supper at 6:00 p.m.followed by a Taizé Service at 7:00. On Sunday, March 1 we...
Life is loud. At least, that’s been my experience of it lately. It seems that I am surrounded by noise and more often than not, that noise is blaring at significant decibels. Streaming services, 24/7 news cycles, personal playlists, devices that ping, sing, and ring...
A couple of weeks ago, a friend gave me a book by Richard Rohr entitled, Breathing Under Water, and it has become my spiritual “traveling companion” for the first part of 2020. Especially as we approach Lent in a month, if you are looking for...
So, how is your year going so far? Is it the perfectly wonderful year you imagined on New Year’s Day? New Year’s Day. Just three short weeks ago, yet it feels like a universe away. Already my year has been visited by death, failure,...
One of the truths regarding religious faith is that it is full of paradox. At least, it is intended to be paradoxical. I sometimes wonder whether much of the turmoil we are experiencing in our world is related to the fact that we’ve lost...
As many people did, I traveled to be with family over the recent holidays. As is typical for us, we spent much of the week in Arkansas gathered in my mom’s kitchen, having wonderful conversations over meals and working jigsaw puzzles. We also took long...
Despite the fact that twice today I have dated a document as “December,” a new year has, in fact, begun. I spent part of my New Year’s Day taking down the Christmas decorations and storing the paper and bows, wreaths and angels, ornaments and nutcrackers...
When the song of the angels is stilled, When the star in the sky is gone, When the kings and the princes are home, When the shepherds are back with their flocks, The work of Christmas begins: To find the lost, To heal the broken, To feed the hungry, To release the prisoner, To...
This year is Calvary’s second annual promotion of the "RACK" campaign—Random Acts of Christmas Kindness. As we detailed in a blog post a few weeks ago, we started "RACK" as a way to engage our children in being a good neighbor—to family, strangers, people at...