How can we find peace in this life despite the slings of conflict and arrows of hurt randomly piercing us? How can we become agents of harmony rather than pain?
FEELS SO GOOD
Last Monday the mere act of quietly slipping back into my study at church, before other staff arrived, was the most healing and restorative thing I could have done. I relished reentering my routine of answering messages, taking stock of pastoral care needs, and planning Sunday worship. I felt like myself. It felt like home. With many recent shocks and aftershocks, I was able to remember who I really am. As church friends and leaders stopped in to welcome and console, that feeling grew.
“I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” Philippians 4.13
We imagine, as we look to the future, that a time will soon come when we can coast. When we can take it easy and things will work out. When things will settle down. Of all times, one might reasonably expect such an experience during a sabbatical, being designed for rest, recovery, and repose–a taste of serenity.
SABBATH PASTURES
I was the luckiest kid in the world. I was raised in the big city that produced my favorite thing in the world: automobiles. Vroom! Vroom! I am a Motor City boy. But at least once every month, during summers
IF IT LOOKS LIKE DEATH, IT POINTS TOWARD LIFE
The seasons are colliding. The calendar says first day of spring but the reality is winter wielding another white whipsaw our way. Talk of lions entering and lambs leaving sounds polite compared to how schizoid the early spring can be.
BACKSTORIES
What stirs your imagination for warmer and brighter in the wet chill of late winter? For some it is the chirpy cadences of a spring training ball game on the radio. For others it is a seed catalogue in the