Month: August 2026

The Why

You know how much I love a great site prompt. (The website that hosts this page gives a daily topic to encourage more engagement from me. They figure the more I write, the more you click & read, the more business they get, right? I don’t write every day, and probably won’t, but if the site prompts would be like today’s, maybe I’d revisit that, but they are sometimes questions like, “What is your favorite e-commerce site?”) Today’s question is, “Why do you blog?” What a beautifully introspective avenue to examine.

Is it because I like the clicks, visits, likes, and comments? Do likes equate to worth: the more likes I get, the more valuable I am? Maybe it’s because my name attached to something online is a form of narcissism, or maybe the narcissism is thinking my thoughts on anything are somehow necessary to your lives. Do I want to be an influencer, internet-famous, parlaying this blog into a YouTube site where I produce videos of my family and the products of sponsors, where you can “smash the like button,” share, and subscribe, making me rich beyond my wildest dreams?

I don’t think it’s any of those. I say “I don’t think,” because it’s always possible, isn’t it? We can be pretty selfish, with remarkably well-honed powers of rationalization that clouds our judgment until we don’t even know why we do what we do anymore. But I truly don’t think it’s any of those. (I don’t get too many likes, hardly any comments, and I have yet to get a check in the mail from The Internet.) I don’t think it’s one of those, because I think I know exactly why I do what I do, blogging or otherwise.

Last week, a very good friend and I recorded a podcast (it’s called “A New Thing,” and you can find it here, on her YouTube page:  https://www.youtube.com/@DreamMythosStudios/podcasts I bet I’ll smash that like button and put it up everywhere, the second I figure out how to do that). It is the first in a conversation where we’ll take a spiritual/religious idea and discuss how it is still important today. I was going to say “if” it’s still important today, but I don’t ever wonder IF it is, I know it is, it just might take a moment of attention to see how. That’s the sort of thing we’re discussing. We’ll also get into popular songs, movies, art, whatever, everything, and see where and how that affects our beautiful spirits.

That podcast is a very recent perfect example of my Why. I happen to love Jesus and think He is The Answer. I think if we’d fall in love with Him, listen to & follow Him, our hearts would explode (grow 100 sizes in an instant), we’d all love each other and the entire world would change in a moment. He changed my whole life, and now, ideally, everything I say, do, or think would express that foundation. Every time you’d listen to that podcast, you’d know that I love Jesus, and that I love you. I would want to make you feel valued & safe, you’d know I think you’re awesome and important. I would listen and hug you a lot. I would try to explain the Ark of the Covenant (that was our 1st topic on the podcast) in a way that might help you see His love for you (for everyone, ourselves, our neighbors AND our enemies alike) and His pursuit. I try to do the same with the Bible on Sundays. I try to do this at the church, but I also want to do this at home afterwards, and at the grocery store on Mondays, and the gym everyday. I want to be a walking, talking, living illustration of The Gospel in every situation and space.

Of course, as you already know, I am not able to do that all the time (probably much, much less than I’d like). I can be an obstacle, I can fall, I can be a bad example of what love looks like, I’m not always patient and kind and I can really keep score – but even in that, it is my hope and intention that I can point to His grace, mercy, and forgiveness. In my failure, I can still express my foundation.

Sometimes, like here, today, I am very explicit in my belief. I am quite religious and will use religious examples to connect. But other times, I use Marvel movies, books, and pop songs. I am honest, to a fault, and anytime there’s anything to share, I over-share. I am grateful. I will love you and everybody else with no agenda. This isn’t to amass “like” smashes or paychecks, I love just because I do. Just because that’s how I’ve been created.

So, love. That’s why I write. But it’s more, it’s why I do anything.

1st Day

Today is the first day of school in my little circle. 3rd-5th grade children returned to the school where The Angel works, and classes began at Lycoming College for my youngest son. My oldest son is studying for his next new responsibility at work. And here I am, alone at home, writing, listening to the punk band Rise Against as loud as my speaker will comfortably go.

Life moves in rhythms. We soar along the clouds, plunge into the valleys, and take slow, sometimes boring steps in the flat straightaways. In the Church calendar, these are called sacred and ordinary times, and it has come to imply that some times are more charged with the Divine than others, that some Tuesdays are deeper than others, and that all Sundays are more spiritual than those Tuesdays. I disagree. Not with the idea that there are rhythms to life, it seems pretty silly to argue about that, but instead, with the assumption that there are places, spaces and times where God is not, or at least, where He is less.

Is the opening of classes today common, ordinary time? Or is this the sacred & holy? Was our wedding day more sacred than this Monday morning, 25+ years in, standing on our porch, me taking her 1st day picture, before we walked to her car and shared a soft smooch? Was last Friday moving my son into the dorm charged with big, heavy meaning and significance, or was it the day before when we all ate dinner together, played Pictionary, and went disc golfing?

I’m more and more certain that “ordinary” time is simply the moments and days, seasons or years, where we fall asleep or lose our vision.

If my oldest son can’t see the hand of God on his work, or even more importantly, on his life, then it truly is common. However, I can, and they are anything but common. They are miracles, he is a miracle. What about the kids that come into that elementary school today, terrified and alone, who find The Angel’s luminous smile that can stop a clock and her arms that will bring safety and solace to those storms raging in those little hearts? Does that sound ordinary? Do you think it’s ordinary to those kids?

We just forget to see.

I am here, alone in my chair, with this computer and these words. The song currently playing is called “Historia Calamitatum,” and here are the lyrics to the hook: “When it rains it pours Like summer storms, the skies as grey as leaves. The rivers flood the banks and spill into the streets. But the people laughed and swore that they’d restore The city piece by piece. And then the clouds gave way as if to agree. When it rains it pours.” If you heard it, you might let it play and miss that devastating poetry. That would be heartbreaking. But even if we do hear this song, how many songs do we miss?

There is nowhere God isn’t, nowhere there is less of Him.

Even in our sadness and tragedy. Even in our pain. Even in the news and on Facebook. Jesus says, “Whoever has ears, let them hear,” and I don’t think He was only talking about His parables. I think, maybe, He was referring to baseball games, punk rock songs, tv shows, sunsets, mangoes, Tuesdays AND Wednesdays (and all other days), wedding days, 1st days and every days. I think He was probably referring to everything He has made, trees, streams, red-eared slider turtles, families, neighbors and even enemies.

Ordinary time is likely intended as a way to protect against our tendency to want (or expect) every day to be fireworks and movie scenes, to want every song to be “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out.” And it is probably supposed to point us to the presence of God even in the “ordinary.” But I think we went too far, lost that point, believed the opposite, and went to sleep.

The revolution of His Kingdom begins when we start to wake up to the Divine, sacred, holy reality all around us.

Benediction

It’s a little later in the week than I typically like to post. I write on Mondays, when the message is fresh and I’m refocusing on the week ahead. It’s a cool way for us to connect – I reach out to you right away and you have the rest of the week, if you decide you want to check in at all.

I heard this kind of communication is actually one of the characteristics of modern communication that has far-reaching consequences. When we are face to face (or even on the telephone), we send messages (verbally, physically, and countless other ways), they are received and reacted to immediately. If I say something that hurts your feelings, I see it, and we both have the opportunity/responsibility to address the hurt right now. You don’t really get the chance to hide it or pretend, because if I’m present and paying attention, your cues give you away. We both build all kinds of interpersonal skills through this synchronous dance. Nowadays (do I sound like somebody’s grandfather???), we send texts or emails and they are responded to sometime later. The receiver gets the chance to edit their responses, and the sender may not ever know the wound he/she inflicted. We lose so much in this asynchronous communication, it’s like the medium creates AND requires a disconnectedness.

This affects our ability to be present in situations and especially with each other. I am writing later in the week because I have chosen this week to be wholly present at home with my youngest son, who returns to college this week. (Really, it may more accurately be stated that I have chosen to be wholly present all summer. You may have noticed this, in any number of ways.)

I just want to share a few thoughts with you, and then give a sort of benediction. A benediction is the end of a church service where someone gives a parting thought, a blessing. It usually begins with “May you ____” At the Bridge, ours is always taken from the book of Numbers (ch. 6, v. 24-26, ending with “[May] The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.”)

I often talk about a 2 Hands faith. This means we are invited to hold all of the emotions that come with living a completely present human life. Being an actual authentic human being is complex and complicated. We can be lots of different things, experiencing wildly different emotions from one second to the next. They are all ok, all welcome, and integrate into us (sometimes not so easily) making us fully aware and empathetic.

A great example and the one that I am swimming in right now is bitter-sweetness. “The bittersweet side of appreciating life’s most precious moments is the unbearable awareness that those moments are passing.” Marc Parent wrote this. I have no idea who this is, but it came to me through Brene Brown’s brilliant Atlas of The Heart book.

My son and I are very close, I love him dearly, am so proud of him, and really enjoy his company. He is absolutely ready to leave, start his adult life and change this world. I want him to go, I’m excited for him to go, we are celebrating – he loves college, is responsible, and will be able to fly – and I’m heartbroken. This kind of heartbreak has its roots in the richest, most wonderful soil of gratitude. I don’t want him to stay, I want him to become all he’s been created to be, and I will be his biggest fan and admirer as he goes.

And it hurts like crazy.

I don’t ever pretend it doesn’t, because to pretend otherwise is to introduce dishonesty into this sacred space, where it most certainly doesn’t belong. We have been given these gifts by The Creator of The Universe, He’s given them in love, why would I hold back anything? Why would I hold back joy? How could I possibly put dimmer switches on my gratitude? He gave me this great big, soft heart, He gave me this boy to love, to raise and to let go, and asks me to hold all of this out loud, so that is exactly what I’m going to do.

We’re playing games this week, shopping for school/dorm stuff, eating meals, disc golfing, and laughing. 2 nights ago, we played basketball in the driveway, like we always have, and the old man soreness I feel is 1. Not that nice, and 2. The most beautiful ache. He plays video games in the next room and I can see him while I writes to you, and that brings us to the benediction…

May we be courageous enough to enter into these relationships, and be present to the kind of searing pain that comes with such a deep, wide love. May we experience all the fullness of emotion that comes with the blessings of these human lives. May we be torn in gratitude.

4 Steps To A Great New Life!!!!!

[Before we get to our 4 Steps To A Great New Life – or maybe it it simply part of building a great new life – I want to share what I’m noticing in our Bible In A Year passages in Ezra. Over and over, like the chorus of a song, he writes, “the gracious hand of God was upon us.” Things happen because of this “gracious hand of God.” I love the lenses through which he sees the world. He isn’t making anything happen, not making blessings or manufacturing miracles, the Source of everything is God and His “gracious hand(s).” We could all probably use more of that sort of perspective. Now, the 4 STEPS THAT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE!!!]

[…Well, not yet. I am using this title and putting it in a caps lock because I, generally, have a giant suspicion towards the entire library of this type of self-help industry. 4 (or 7 or 105) steps won’t change your life, there’s no magic pill, no cast iron formula for transformation. I use these words mostly as satire…but, only mostly. There is some truth in practice. Sometimes, we can find universal characteristics that help to point us in a certain direction. Eating dinner together as a family isn’t always going to lead to connection and foster beautiful close-knit relationships, but there’s a very good chance it will. So, in Sunday’s message, we discussed 4 ways we can cultivate an environment in which we can grow closer to (or, to use the word from the 2 Corinthians passage: know) God. Now, we’re ready to jump into these 4 STEPS THAT WILL…you get the point.]

STEP 1, Read your Bible. Through His Word, we can begin to discover the Story, the character of God, Who He is, and who we are in Him. We see this is a divine chase: He made us, we ran (and run) away, and He pursues. He loves. He is graceful, the “gracious hand of God” is upon us, no matter what kind or size of mess we can make. This is information, data, facts, head knowledge, as foundation. If we stop here, maybe our lives don’t change, but that leaves us to the 2nd BIG AWESOME STEP: Contemplate.

We read, pray, ask The Spirit to show us, to connect the dots, tie the clouds together. In our reading, we learn about Abraham, Elijah, Jonah, John the Baptizer, the man on the cross next to Jesus, Judas, and Thomas. And in the contemplative space, with the Spirit’s guidance, we learn that we are each of them. We get frustrated at the Israelites living the same tired loops, and have our eyes opened to our own loops that we live. The Story jumps to life and we can more and more easily see that these words, written thousands of years ago, are our words, too. The Spirit teaches, removes the scales from our eyes and hearts, as we see our place in this Creation.

STEP 3 (easy to disregard in our arrogant independence) is Community. We were never meant to be alone, even before the Fall, it is “not good,” so we are given the beautiful gift of each other, of The Church. We reach out, care for and are cared for, and in this, we begin to see the image of God in each of us. The us/them fallacy is exposed as pure, utter nonsense rooted in fear. There is only just us. And in STEPS 1 & 2, we have seen that God’s favorite method to bless us, to show His amazing, limitless love, IS us. We get to practice kindness, forgiveness, goodness, peace, joy, love every moment. In other words, in relationship, we get to practice living in His Kingdom.

The last STEP TO A GREAT NEW LIFE!!!!! is Mindful Awareness. In other words, this world is crackling with the energy of the God of the Universe, of His Universe, if we only have the eyes, ears and hearts to see, hear & experience it. Soooo, we need to pay attention! We have to notice His Kingdom all around us. If you are walking, totally distracted, you might not realize that I’m walking beside you. But if you do, you can hold my hand and we can walk through this life together.

That’s 4 STEPS!!! I wrote earlier that there’s no cast iron formula for transformation, but if there was, it might be this one. I guess it depends how you define a GREAT NEW LIFE, but a new perspective on our own lives, the world around us, and The One Who holds it all together, a terrific group of people to walk with, all of us finally awake, sounds like one to me.

Spirit

We have a prayer ministry at the Bridge. (I think every faith community should have a prayer ministry, where people can come together, share their burdens, requests, and celebrations, and then take them to the feet of Jesus together. So we do.) We’ve also added a short time before that to discuss what we’re reading in the Bible and/or other questions we might have about our faith. It’s a safe place to be vulnerable and explore. I sometimes picture us in the 1st century receiving letters from apostles, reading and wrestling with these new mind-blowing concepts in someone’s living room. And I usually take my shoes off, because we’re on holy ground (in a holy space, a holy posture).

This week, the conversation centered around the Holy Spirit, the Third Member of the Trinity Who receives relatively little mention in our lives. Maybe that’s because we’re confused about His/Her (often, The Spirit is given feminine characteristics and imagery) role, or that we’re simply used to using the Names of The Father, God, and The Son, Jesus the Christ. It probably doesn’t matter why or even if we use the Spirit specifically, as long as we recognize & acknowledge Her* enormous impact on our lives, impossible to understate.

(*or His, if you prefer – sometimes the words we use can be a huge obstacle, due to any and all sorts of human baggage. In that case, change the words. I’m certainly not interested in keeping obstacles. However, we must never abandon the principle and certainly not The Person based solely on an traumatic experience and negative semantic connotation.)

We are blind and The Spirit opens our eyes, deaf and The Spirit opens our ears, breaks our heart and heals it. When Jesus ascended, He left the Advocate/Counselor/Helper/Holy Spirit in us as a constant Divine presence. The prompts we receive to call that person or do that thing or whatever, that may be the Spirit leading us. The songs on the radio that connect to the passages we read earlier that “happen to” connect to a decision in our lives, there’s a great chance that’s The Spirit, too. Maybe you hear Her as an audible voice or a subtle nudge or a whisper or a shove, the way She moves is as different for each of us as it is for us at different days, times, situations in our own lives.

So, when I see the hosting site’s prompt today, “Scour the news for an entirely uninteresting story. Consider how it connects to your life. Write about that,” I can’t help but to see an obvious (though likely unintended) parallel. The uninteresting story, about other people doing other things in other places, does connect, we just can’t always see it. The prompt slows us down, asks us to focus, breathe, and look for connections. That the other places aren’t as “other” as we initially think, the other people definitely not “other” at all. What could possibly be unrelated or uninteresting?

I’ve heard this sort of exercise called “tying the clouds together,” and it absolutely isn’t something we do by ourselves. On our own, we divide and categorize, we look for trivial criteria to evaluate & compare. We fight and de-humanize. If (and when) we hear The Spirit, we can erase all of those walls, hope to forgive, and begin to love each other. Connection instead of separation, peace instead of war, kindness instead of violence, enough instead of more, you/we instead of me – these are all the work of The Spirit.

I don’t care too much about the story we find when we “scour the news,” but I care A LOT about the connection, and I’m pretty sure that’s the work of The Spirit, too.

What Brings You Joy?

“Describe one habit that brings you joy.” That’s the hosting website’s writing prompt for today, and I wanted to pass it along to you. What is one for you? What brings you joy? What brought you joy today?

[I opened my computer to write about something else entirely. (Maybe it’s not so different, we’ll see.) Yesterday, as an aside, to illustrate the “requirements” of falling in love with & following Jesus, and the relationship between salvation & sanctification, I asked my oldest son what he’d do if I bought him a Lego set. He said, “Thank you, and build it.” Our response to His gifts are just like that, we are grateful, say “Thank You,” and we live full lives of love, joy and peace. Those are the “requirements.” The Angel wasn’t in the service, and when I told her that our son absolutely preached, it was more and more simple and profound. And I wanted to talk about it again, here. But now we have a new question to consider…]

We are often confronted with some variation of this question: Where do we find joy? It reminds me of the feeling I have when I read the story where Jesus comes upon a blind man who is calling out to Him. He stops, asks, “What do you want me to do for you?” Now, in this story, the man asks for his sight, so Jesus gives it to him.

I don’t think we’d do the same, necessarily. Faced with Jesus, I think we’d be afraid to ask for anything, hedge our prayers, feel some kind of way asking for something so personal, and instead ask for a new cane or sunglasses to better deal with our blindness. Or, worse yet, if Jesus asked us what we want, what He can do for us, and we couldn’t answer Him because we didn’t know. I get to ask this question to quite a few people, in vulnerable places, and it is crushing when they can’t answer. They usually answer after a long pause through watery eyes.

What brought you joy today? Anything? Or everything? (Maybe that’s a lot to ask. Work on a Monday morning might not be the most joyous experience.) What if we don’t know? What if there hasn’t been any joy today? What if there hasn’t for days and days? Weeks? Years?? Then what?

[Now, as I suspected, these 2 thoughts aren’t unrelated at all.]

Are we spending so much time obsessing about what we have to do, about the “requirements,” that we’ve forgotten what we get to do? And what if they’re the same thing, with the only difference being our perspective? We often don’t know what we need, and we often become so blind to the shine on His gifts that we lose the joy of the simple, beautiful response: gratitude and building.

Maybe that guy’s response to Jesus is ours, too, because usually, the only difference between joy and emptiness is our ability to see. Maybe He can give us our sight, so then we can finally see what (and Who) has been there all along.