Blog

I was in Burundi on 9/11. Prior to that day I never gave Islam a thought, I never had reason to say Muslim. But much changed that September day. People started devouring books on Islam, seminaries hosted forums with Muslim scholars and cable news shows began to feature Muslim clerics in an effort to understand. The deeds of that day stirred both interest and fear. I felt it in transit between Africa and the US, pushing through crowded airports like…

I am in transit for the next few days, headed to Vancouver to visit my SheLove sisters Idelette McVicker, Tina Francis & Sarah Bessey. I am eager for time together to laugh, snack, write, share, dream and inhale the goodness of friendship. These women have other affects on me - they inspire, encourage, push and love me.  I will travel anywhere to be in such company!  

Ali and I sat side by side for a long church season learning about worship, compassion and forgiveness.  Then she moved away. During our annual retreat to Santa Barbara some years later she told me about yoga. Not just taking classes or carrying around her own mat – but studying to be a yoga instructor. My best Christian friend was becoming a yogi – reading Sanskrit and Scripture and loving Jesus all the while. In the serenity of the sun-lit…

“Keep the Sabbath day holy!” yelled the boisterous and candy-hungry third graders in answer to the pirate’s final trivia question. Apparently they were going through the Ten Commands in Sunday School. (Pretty sure pirate ships were not part of the Egyptian landscape, but my guess is they were taking some creative license with it all.) Over lunch I asked my son what “Sabbath” meant. “It is when we take time to rest so we can go to church and worship God,” he…

He stood tall and well-styled. His words were eloquent and piercing in a welcomed way like the first bracing whiff of a lover’s cologne. I could not ignore the words – nor did I intend to. “We say that we believe ‘all truth is God’s truth’ – but do we really?” He went on to outline the ways which we say we embrace all truth but in fact refuse truth that comes from suspect sources, thinkers who are foreign to…

My children were caught fighting on the school playground. It got physical, loud and mean. She knows how to provoke. He can’t restrain his reaction. The next morning after cereal bowls dotted with blueberries, gummy vitamins and brushed teeth I gathered my chicks on my bed. My son could not even look at her, still seething. My goal was simple: apologize, forgive, pray. I began with a prologue on how God went to special lengths to bring them together. I…

Not too long ago Seth Godin posted on the difference between patina and shine as it relates to marketing. I’ve been twiddling with those words ever since. I remember college days when we dreamed of what we’d become and how we’d change the world. I sensed even back then that I would need grey hair before I was ready to make my unique contribution. Seasoning – enduring many seasons – would develop my gift. The potent influence of mature mentors…

I did not expect to discover an injunction about rest while reading a commentary on Ruth – but there it was nonetheless.  Naomi looks upon her two widowed daughter in laws and says, “May YHWH grant it to you:  Find rest…” Finish the sentence and you will see that Naomi is wishing these young bereft brides to find rest in new homes with new husbands.  She cares about their future welfare and long-term wellness – which cannot involve wallowing in…

Once I relegated stories to the featherweight division of theology.  More flash than substance, stories amused but were not intended for the heavier tasks of instruction, education or ontological reflection.  Certainly story and theology lived at opposite ends of the spectrum.  Story-telling and truth-telling could hold hands, but Truth demanded (and deserved) Fact. Maybe this is why I never cultivated the habit of reading novels, always preferring non-fiction.  A few exceptions stand out like ‘Till We Have Faces’ by C.S.…

Sitting in the passenger seat as we whiz through the streets of Bujumbura, I close my eyes to avoid sight of the crazed and chaotic driving required to cut across town.  Pushing through knotted intersections with cars tangled in multiple directions, accelerating with a wish and a prayer-hoping to take advantage of a hint of an opening in on-coming traffic, weaving on uneven roads to dodge stalled cars, bicycle taxis, slow-moving mamas or a cluster of cows – all part…