Jesus said at his crucifixion, “For if they do this when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?” (Luke 23:31). I wonder if the wood is dry, and we have no idea what to do or…
Revelation 21:1-22:7 We were on vacation and had been traveling for almost three weeks. Everyone—I, my wife, and my three young daughters—was tired. We were ready for the feel of our own beds, the sights and sounds of our hometown,…
That question, “what must I do,” has been weighing on me these last couple of weeks. Maybe it’s been weighing on you, too. The idol of personal safety and the reflex toward self-preservation has me, like the questioner asking his…
My granddaughter was, back then, just a little girl, third grade maybe, but one Sunday morning, I remember, she was already starting to wax nostalgic. Here's what she said. "You remember when we still lived in the old house, and…
She wrote to me exasperated, looking for some clarity.* It was two weeks ago or so, and her church staff was in a panic about Sunday worship. Their area had just gone into a shelter-in-place order, and she – as…
So, March was 749 days long. I’m not sure if I’m ready for the month billed by T.S. Eliot as “the cruelest.” The picture painted by the news suggests that the month is horrifyingly likely to more than live up…
Be still, and know that I am God. Psalm 46:10 As an ADHD sufferer, I confess that this verse has always given me the heebie jeebies. In high school, I was the girl sitting in the back row of class.…
In the moments I’m not self-righteously clucking “tsk, tsk,” at the toilet-paper-hoarding masses, I’m doing mental math estimating how long our supply might last. We’re starting to run low, the stores are empty, and I am anxious. If something doesn’t…
John 1:1-18 Every May I teach a Hope College course called Ecological Theology and Ethics. It runs for three weeks, with the middle two weeks spent in the Adirondacks of upstate New York. After a day of whitewater rafting on…
I initially had grand plans of reading and writing about two excellent new books that are out this month on Christian nationalism, but then a pandemic happened. Alas, that post will have to wait till this is all over, when…
