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Last week school started, demo began on our long overdue home renovation, and we moved into temporary housing in the form of a kind neighbor couple’s guesthouse. Thankfully, through the now endlessly mind-numbing conversations about new kitchen back splash, bathroom fixtures and carpet colors, several volumes of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Mary Oliver’s work on our…

I’m sorry: my absenteeism at this intersection can be attributed to a number of things lately, the most pressing of which is my forthcoming book with author and Christian addiction specialist Jonathan Benz. The book (Prodigal Church or a version of it) is now officially under deadline and by April 1 I’m to have a…

This is a poem I wrote this morning. May your day be full of hope: Daybreak When the sound is birds, and the harvest of night is gathering into morning’s first blooms, the silent prayer of the universe for every living, beating thing stretches itself out across the plain of my heart in hope. Maybe…

Each week in hospice a team of doctors, nurses, chaplains and social workers meets to discuss every patient in their care. Usually the meeting starts with a few moments of silence remembering those who have died in the preceding days, followed by a short meditation from the chaplain. Yesterday a colleague read this poem, “Wild…

Fellow saint and sinner Sally sent this poem by Lisel Mueller along, which seems so fitting for all of us saints and sinners at this intersection between God and life; so I share it with you, too, in hopes that, as you begin another seemingly ordinary week of work, you might also be assured that…

Whiny children with grubby hands lining up to grab at the hem of Your clothes in the bread and the wine. Pretty please. Only an indulgent parent would begrudge the presumption with which we take the bite-size pieces or the desultory thank yous to Christ’s body and blood shed for you— maybe because You know…

Greetings from Shelter Island, New York where I’m vacationing after the completion of the manuscript for Grace Sticks. (Next week I’ll be back to the regular schedule of 3-5 posts a week.) “Kemah” is the name of my family’s home here; the term is a Native American expression meaning “face into the wind.” On our last…

Last week in church I heard a great tune by a brilliant (in an understated way) musician. (I know, those three things, “church,” “great tune,” and “brilliant musician” don’t always go together- especially if the music is “contemporary Christian.”) This song was written, composed and sung by Mondo Davis, who I’m guessing would eschew the…

  My favorite poem from the recent series by Andrew Sullivan (The Dish), Poems from the Year, contains refrains from the Old Testament, especially Ecclesiastes.  Even today’s reading from Nehemiah 8, where “the joy of the Lord is my strength,” sounds more poignantly relevant when considered next to the poetic wisdom of Gilbert: “A Brief…
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