“God is not ‘man’ said in a loud voice.” - Karl Barth

What I’m Listening To This Week: Rufus Wainwright, Ryan Adams, Nick Drake, Ozma, The Rentals, Spoon
What I’m Reading This Week: The Gospel of Mark, Resident Aliens by Stanley Hauerwas

The only reason one is shocked by sin is because he denies his own. Jesus hated sin more than anybody, but He was never shocked by it. - Matt Donovan

An assignment from Christian Education to discuss some “old wineskins” that are in use by the church today.
My response:
- Sunday School (or Sunday morning Bible Study equivalent) as the primary vehicle for Christian Education and spiritual formation.
Sunday morning Bible Study is typically information, information, and more information. A 45-minute sermon from the pastor, then a [...]

In the pauses
Go gently into the day.
Until I return anon
My fuzzy head will satisfy.
Moments closer to reunion
Straightway will we embrace.
For then the delay
Will matter not.
And then as always
Will we find our hearts alive . . .
Again and again
And another time again.

What I’m Listening To This Week: David Crowder Band, Ryan Adams, Counting Crows, Damien Rice, Nick Drake, Coldplay
What I’m Reading This Week: The Gospel of Mark, Subversive Spirituality by Eugene Peterson

Through your fading eyes you see green simplified
As your pursed lips find the apple in complexity
Two dueling saints of old
Fighting to regather my scattered bits of self
As an offering to the paradox
That completes and finds me whole

A darker shade hangs on the moon tonight,
Enfolding this heart of darkness
in pockets heavy with hate.
Unencumbered to the slavery of light,
Feasting on all that has come to pass as fate.

an email i wrote to one of my best friends who is frustrated with life and having to wait on everything that she wants. as i have been there, i wrote . . .
and deep in the forest, a young girl began to sing an enchanted song that reminded all who heard that life was [...]

Moving forward for the day that is
Advancing backward for the day that was
Yet still is
Is there a difference between past memories
And future ones? Surely not.
But as the clock moves one step closer in its chase
Our moments linger fresh in my everything
Her smell, her face, her voice
In my nose, in my eyes, in my ears
In my [...]