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Essay

Essay

September Weeding

This September morning, I went out to weed the neglected backyard border bed. This corner of my garden, out of sight from my backyard, gets rare attention. I push the rusting wheelbarrow of tools through the arbor and over the…
September 21, 2020
Essay

Farm Refugia and Church on the Edges

Twenty miles outside town, out among corn fields and orchards, we find the driveway marked by an unassuming sign: Plainsong Farm. As we pull in and park on the grass, I’m struck by how ordinary it all looks. Two farm…
September 19, 2020
Essay

Home-Schooled

A couple of weeks ago, out west on the Oregon Trail, I couldn't help being astounded by both the clockwork and the sheer number of Union Pacific long-haulers passing, one after another after another, on their way east, each heavy…
September 18, 2020
Essay

Fear of Freedom

They came to Jesus and saw the demoniac sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had had the legion; and they were afraid. Those who had seen what had happened to the demoniac and to…
September 17, 2020
Essay

Meeker Mornings

Midweek. I find myself muttering “how is it only Tuesday?” Perhaps your life, too, is a little bit of a whirlwind at the moment. I don’t have time to read long posts (even really good ones), and I definitely don’t…
September 16, 2020
Essay

A Letter to White Evangelical Friends

Dear Friends, For most of the past decade our daughter has shared a small house in Washington, D.C. Hotels are expensive there and I am a cheapskate, so when we visit we stay with my wife’s cousin, who owns a…
September 14, 2020
Essay

Living a Bigger Story

To be perfectly honest, this is one of those weeks when I greatly expand on the pericopes laid out by the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL). By beginning at Exodus 14:19, the RCL hits the highlight of this story of crossing…
September 13, 2020
Essay

When Life Calls for a Lullaby

Back in college, when I still thought college was the most stressful thing that could happen to me, I developed a pretty workable self-calming practice. When the tension in my shoulders knotted too tight and my heart raced down the…
September 12, 2020