Slowly, tentatively, I pulled the piece from the tower. Relief washed over me as I gingerly placed the piece I had just removed on the top of the fragile tower and released the breath I didn't realize I was holding. It was a fun game with some friends that had gotten super serious as we reached the point where the tower’s collapse was inevitable. The room grew quiet. Everyone leaned in. Each turn required patience, steady hands, and just the right amount of pressure. One wrong move, one piece...
13 days ago • 2 min read
"I don't wanna!" I thought, resisting the urge to stamp my feet. Sometimes I really resent the things I preach when the time arises for practicing them. Nobody else was around, no one would know. I could respond to this person the way I really wanted to respond. Proof of their idiocy and meanness was readily apparent, and I would really enjoy removing that smug expression trying to dismiss me. Instead, I summoned my better angels, took a deep breath, and asked a curious question. Within a few...
20 days ago • 3 min read
This year in worship, we are doing something different. We are slowing down and pulling back the curtain on how the Bible came to be and how it holds together as a living story of faith. Through eight sermon series, each with weekly handouts, we are building a shared resource; a binder for each family with tools to engage scripture more deeply, paying attention to context, genre, and the unfolding journey of the biblical story. This week, I’ve been working through the Covenants series of our...
27 days ago • 2 min read
This week I found myself in a standoff with a printer. It refused to join the WiFi network, and I was determined to make it comply. I followed troubleshooting steps, watched videos, clicked links, unplugged and restarted, downloaded apps, changed and reset settings, and before I knew it, I was deep in a tech rabbit hole that felt urgent and consuming. At some point, I noticed how tense I had become. My shoulders were tight, lifted almost to my ears. My jaw was clenched. My patience was gone....
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Yesterday, my son received his driver’s license. Then he did the thing: he got in the car, buckled his seatbelt, waved, and drove away on his own for the first time. I was surprised by how okay I was. Not because it didn’t matter, but because something in me has been quietly preparing for this for a long time. Growth does that. It doesn’t usually arrive all at once (although it can thrust itself upon us, uninvited). It often comes in small, almost unnoticeable shifts. Practice drives. Longer...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
May this Christmas meet you right where you are in the quiet corners of your life, where longing, gratitude, grief, and hope all sit side by side. May the story of God choosing to dwell among us remind you that you are never alone, especially in the ordinary, the unfinished, and the tender places. May peace settle into your body like a deep exhale.May joy find you in small and surprising ways.And may love feel close enough to touch. As this season unfolds, may you trust that the light born in...
2 months ago • 1 min read
"What do you think about enchiladas?" That was the question I dropped into my family group chat as my siblings and I were planning our Christmas gathering. We were talking through the usual details, including the assumption that we would do the traditional meal with turkey. No one objected, exactly, but no one sounded excited either. It was familiar. It was fine. It was what we had always done. When I typed the enchiladas question and added, “What if our get-together is more "Feliz Navidad"...
2 months ago • 2 min read
I saw a saying this past week that has stayed with me. I first saw it on a bumper sticker, then unbelievably, I heard it said on an episode of Shark Tank. (Ok, God, I see you...) Just a few simple words: Do good, be kind, share what you can. The wisdom and simplicity of it nestled in my heart. Good wisdom is like that. It doesn’t overwhelm us with rules or demand heroic effort. It slips in quietly, looks us in the eye, and asks something both beautifully clear to understand and surprisingly...
3 months ago • 1 min read
This week I found myself in a conversation about the liturgical calendar; why we follow it, why we mark seasons like Advent, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Pentecost, and even the long stretch of Ordinary Time. It can seem like a peculiar rhythm to people outside the church. But the more I think about it, the more convinced I am that the calendar is one of the best tools we have for faith formation. It shapes us slowly. It gives us language, patterns, and rituals that help us grow into the kind of...
3 months ago • 2 min read