A few months ago I was coaching a pastor who is also an artist. We meet once a month to work on her goals. My job is to ask her good questions to help her identify where she feels stuck,…
Call me crazy, but when I think of Advent I sometimes think about integrity. Sure, I also think about warm candles lit against the cold, dark nights. I think about wreaths, about decorating trees with lights, and about those paper…
It was the day of the presidential election, November 8, 2016. I had been asked to preach in chapel at the Bast Preaching Festival at Western Seminary in Michigan. Shortly afterward I found myself driving back home to Ontario. It…
It was in a small, stuffy room in the sub-basement of the Golden Walls Hotel, just across the road from the old city of Jerusalem. I was with a small group on a two-week trip to Israel/Palestine. We had come…
By Marikjke Strong Jeremiah 31:7-14 Happy new day! Happy new beginning! For a split second there is a funny, sweet discomfort between us. Wouldn’t it make sense to say these things more often? Murmur them across the pillow bellow them…
by Marijke Strong Isaiah 61:10-62:3 And you shall be called by a new name which the mouth of the Lord shall give. Do you remember how we used to gather bugs in a plastic teapot? Pouring woolly caterpillars and ladybugs…
By Marijke Strong Luke 1:46-55 My soul magnifies the Lord. Do you remember how on summer nights we would watch stars from the upstairs balcony? (more…)
by Marijke Strong A six week commitment to writing has shown me how habitually I pile up words, often in play but sometimes also (if I’m honest) to divert attention from the stark truths crouching inside me. Call it chronic…
By Marijke Strong Second Sunday of Advent Isaiah 40:1-11; Psalm 85; 2 Peter 3:8-15, Mark 1:1-8 Lord – Arundahti Roy says another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day we can hear her…
by Marijke Strong First Sunday of Advent: Isaiah 64:1-9; Psalm 80; 1 Corinthians 1:3-9; Mark 13:24-37 God, John of the Cross said we are all pregnant. How do you feel about that? And if it is so, how then are…
