The worship piece this week is a prayer of confession and assurance of pardon based on the New Testament lectionary readings for the upcoming Sunday. Blessings to all who are planning worship this week! Prayer of Confession (based on Mark 6:7-13) Holy One of Nazareth, We see you calm storms, heal illness, even restore life,…
My prayer practice this morning was a combination of Praying with Color and Zen Doodling. The upcoming Western District Conference is on my mind, so I spent time in prayer for that event and for some of the people connected with it. To engage in this practice, you will need a piece of paper, a…
If you are of a certain age, you might remember “Church Chat” on Saturday Night Live. Dana Carvey’s character, the Church Lady, manifested all of the stereotypes of old, religious women. She thought very highly of herself and quite poorly of everyone else. I can imagine being interviewed by the Church Lady: “So, you married…
In her book At Home in the World, Margaret Guenther encourages us to include times of “holy uselessness” in our Rule of Life. As hard-working adults we too often lose the gift for letting go, for delight in simply being. We persuade ourselves that every moment must be lived productively; like the busy little bee,…
Well, I have to give Grace most of the credit for this creation. Amazing what you can do with a paper plate, two plastic spoons, and a rubber band. It flies pretty well.
Here is a call to worship based on this week’s Gospel reading from the Revised Common Lectionary: We gather together in this place of peace . . . Why are we afraid? As storms buffet Why are we afraid? As nations rage Why are we afraid? As relationships crumble Why are we afraid? As illness…
I saw that Psalm 130 is coming up as a lectionary reading for July 1. What a beautiful, heartbreaking piece of poetry! I just posted a sermon I wrote on Psalm 130 back in 2006. (Hard to believe I’ve been preaching that long!) And here is a simple responsive reading from Psalm 130 that can…
Earlier today I found out about a Rule of Life from Martin Luther King Jr. I decided that I wanted to keep this Rule with me, so I created an ATC with the Rule on one side and an inked picture (resembling my blog header) on the other. I’m pretty happy with how these turned…
One of my sabbatical projects is to develop a Rule of Life—a set of principles and practices that will guide me, that will under-gird the busyness of life with a holy rhythm and a focus on Christ. You won’t be surprised to know that I’ve also been spending significant time these past weeks reading, writing,…
I wanted to make a “Thinking of You” card tonight, and things weren’t quite working out. I ended up with a fun, colorful border that seemed a little too cheery for my purposes–so I made that card a “Best Wishes” for a friend who recently got engaged. By this point I was getting a little…
Spacious Faith 