prayer
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The Psalms, anxiety, and spiritual enemies
I’ve never been that good with keeping to Morning Prayer every morning, but I’d like to be. Getting my children ready for school most mornings, however, doesn’t usually lead to a stable schedule of daily prayer. And so, like most… Continue reading
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Giving voice to every creature under heaven
Children live in an enchanted world. I don’t mean this in a sentimental way, though. I don’t mean that children live as if magic were real and that everything shimmers and shines with unicorns and fairies. Children can be realists,… Continue reading
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“Pied Beauty” and the Trinity
Today I’d like to meditate with you all a bit on a poem. It’s called “Pied Beauty” and was written by Gerard Manley Hopkins in 1877. I’ve enjoyed this poem for a while, and I’m always eager to share it… Continue reading
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Waiting for trees to bud is good because it is hard
The following is a short piece I wrote for CNY Inspirations of syracuse.com. I’m invited to write these reflections every so often through InterFaith Works, where I am a member of the Roundtable of Faith Leaders. Three articles are published… Continue reading
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Sitting in silence with my daughters
Most of my backyard is a steep hill. Outside the back door, there is a short, flat space of maybe twenty or thirty feet, then the land climbs suddenly at a sharp angle. The hillside is covered in trees with… Continue reading
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How do you write your sermons?
Every now and again, someone asks me about my process for writing sermons. This question usually gets me pretty excited. I studied the creative process in graduate school and seminary, I like thinking about the theology of creativity, and like most… Continue reading
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Holding as prayer
Just before my first daughter was born, a friend gave me a small book called “Holding your baby.” It was a book of prayer and devotions to be read by a parent in the first days of their lives. It… Continue reading
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The tooth fairy and a longing for Heaven
The other day, in our evening prayer time, our youngest daughter prayed that the Tooth Fairy is real. She has her first “wiggle tooth”, and she has that beautiful combination of anxiety and joy at something new that children have about… Continue reading
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Red-tinted conifers and the darkness of God
When I was in high school, I hated going to church. It’s not that I wasn’t Christian, though I have to say that it wasn’t until college of when teaching abroad that I really gave honest, mature thought to the… Continue reading
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The Death and Rebirth of Writing
Conversion is never one hundred percent. We always bring something with us when we make a change (or changes are made) to our lives. To put it into even more Christian language, the death and resurrection that we experience in… Continue reading
Incense and Crayons 