Dear Friends, Last Tuesday (1/5) I sat at my desk to write my first blog of 2021. A few days before, I had spent fifteen hours in the car, driving the 1000 miles back to Fairfax from Arkansas. So, I’d had plenty of uninterrupted, quiet time...
Dear Friends, Without a doubt, this is not the blog I had intended to compose to kick-start 2021. Marcelo’s unexpected death yesterday has left a gaping hole, and it will take time for me to come to terms with it, both personally and from the perspective...
Dear Friends, As you read this, I am likely somewhere on Interstate 81 or 40, heading down through Virginia and across Tennessee on my way to spend a couple of weeks in Arkansas with my mother. Like so many people around the country, she has spent...
Dear Friends, Joy to the world, the Lord is come! Boy, am I grateful for this truth this year! I mean, we say it—and sing it—every Advent, but in this most crazy of years, 2020 has led me to a deeper understanding and appreciation of just how...
Happy Advent, Friends! I can hardly believe it, but the calendar has turned, and it is December. Though I am still eating the last of the turkey and dressing leftovers, I have also joined throngs (translation: tens of millions!) of people doing online Christmas shopping. In...
Dear Friends, Thanksgiving week is here and for many of us, it will be quite a different holiday than in years past. Like everything else in our lives, the novel coronavirus has upended our normal traditions and routines. If you are feeling a sense of loss...
Dear Friends, Without a doubt, there are myriad ways people will describe 2020 once it is finally in our rearview mirror. For me, it is already clear that I will remember it as a year for learning new things, and on Sunday, we will have yet...
Advent is that special season in the life of the church during which we anticipate and prepare for the Incarnation. "Incarnation" is a "fifty-cent" theological word that reminds us that God made a stunning choice to take on human flesh and "move into the neighborhood"...
Dear Friends, What a gift this unusual, unexpected, glorious weather has been. “More like May than November” is the way one weather forecaster described it. And while I know it won’t last, that winter is surely on the way, I’ve needed and enjoyed the respite. I’ve...
Dear Friends, The calendar has turned a page and with the arrival of November, a number of significant shifts are occurring. First, of course, today is Election Day, and if you haven’t done so already, please remember to vote before the polls close. Every four years...