Friends have been asking how my new gig as a Chaplain Intern is going. I’m not sure there are enough adjectives – hard, interesting, holy, emotional, affirming – just to begin. My colleagues have also been very generous with their time, perspective, insight, and their care for me. It was probably better for me to […]
In elementary school, one of the classroom chores was cleaning the chalkboard erasers. More appropriately, beating the chalk out of the erasers. Usually at the last recess of the day, one or two people were assigned to take the erasers outside and beat them together to remove the chalk dust. We had two types of […]
One of the first chapter books I remember reading as a kid was The Boy Hikers. It was a book given to my dad by my grandmother and was a book that he read several times as a boy. For some reason, I was thinking about the book, dad knew where it was, and I […]
Life can be routine. Have you noticed that we do stuff over and over? I was getting ready for bed and thought – I’ve done this before. In pretty much the same sequence. For a really long time. Over and over. A lot of life is pretty routine. Work can become routine. Even though there […]
Went for a walk in the evening and as I turned for home, a long shadow was cast on the sidewalk ahead of me. The shadow walked on ahead of me. An eclipse of the moon or the sun is essentially a shadow. It creates dynamic colors and is intriguing to people. A couple years […]
I called my son yesterday. His wife is still working outside the home and he’s trying to figure out how to work from home, while homeschooling a daughter and trying to keep his son from tearing pictures off the wall. What I really heard was an overwhelming tiredness. I’m hearing and sensing the same thing […]
This past few weeks have seemed like a movie, but somehow I’m in it. Every day the situation changes, there’s new actors and the script changes. We’re using phrases like social distancing, with distances that get continually farther and for longer periods of time. Children are not in schools. Sports teams are shut down. Businesses […]
One of my favorite things about leading a team to Haiti is our reflection time each night. We talk about what happened during the day, where we saw God that day, and then we pose a question to the group. Each night a different person chooses the question. I have a book of questions that […]
For some reason, I’ve been putting my clothes on backwards. I showed up for a meeting with my boss and she said, “Hey, I think your sweater is on backwards.” I spent half a day feeling like something wasn’t right and found out my t-shirt was on backwards. Went to the gym this morning and […]
When we go on our trips to Haiti, there are often steps. Steps to the second level of our guest house. Steps to the second level of our school. Steps in the entryway to a building. Because construction is not as exacting, it is common that the steps are different heights. Even though in very […]