I want my life to be a witness to the possibilities. And in the next fifty days, before I turn fifty, I want to leave a few crumbs for you to follow into that holy space with me. Read more

So, slide those envelopes across the table. Write a note. Pick up the phone. Send a text. Give a gift. The world needs a sustaining word and there is no one but us to speak it. Read more

Description text goes hereI’m interested in the full spectrum of my ancestral history. The ways in which they showed tenacity and courage, alongside the ways in which they were victims of and contributors to systems of oppression. It’s all there and one does not negate the other, but you can’t tell one without the other. Read more

You have always done what needed to be done. All your days were spent tilling a livelihood. Scanning the horizon of wheat fields, you knew when it was time to go or stay. You trusted in closely held routines and customs to define and comfort you. Thank you for being the reliable ones and for the long years of work that fed two nations. Read more

As you can see, I don’t have much patience for dispensationalism, but I cannot deny its cultural power. Being educated in its institutions and churches, I recognize the seeds it sowed in our current political state. Those who do not even know the word dispensationalism are swayed by the way it has been proclaimed as the totality of the Christian message. Read more

So many of us are stuck reacting against a way of faith that wasn’t ever fit for true soulful human habitation. We have been told that we have to choose to stay open to the world or closed in a system of belief. Read more

What if Christianity doesn’t offer a formula for belief but a living conversation that carries us across our lives and traditions? What if it is the conversation that saves you and not the confession? Read more

Baseball is just a game, but I think for those of us who love it, it is also a practice of Sabbath. It’s a break from our routines that opens a space in our reality for something new and unexpected. It helps us remember that as my grandpa always said, “Any given team can win on any given day.” We live in the possibilities of this present at bat and know that whatever happens, there will be another game tomorrow. Read more

This is why, despite all the frustration that it can bring, I still believe in church. It is a place where the rhythms of self-reflection and community come together in a powerful way to sand down the edges of our lives. We get to see God show up when we are all gaining wisdom together, and the world is changed. Read more

I’m pretty sure I have witnessed miracles and divine interventions, but I am slow to give them a lot of credit. I don’t think God is somewhere pulling strings giving me the good parking space in front of the Pilates studio while a hurricane is decimating a village in Mexico. So, I stay open to mystery, but I don’t hold God responsible for what happens. Read more

My friend who is a hospice chaplain once told me she couldn’t go to any church with a pastor who had a simplistic understanding of suffering. That has always haunted me. But I agree with her. A theology that does’t work in deep suffering doesn’t work. Read more

This is how I’ve put randomness and meaning together. It hasn’t prevented me from suffering, but it has helped me hold it with honesty and integrity. May it help you find your way through the beauty and pain of this world as well. Read more

In changing traditions, I changed understandings of baptism. I honor both as beautiful in their own way. I’m so glad that I remember my baptism. And there is nothing more beautiful that water on the head of an infant, declaring “You belong to God.” Read more

George was at best agnostic about the reality of God. Growing up with a legalistic religion that rejected science, he preferred to put his confidence in science and mathematical proofs. But George was also a lover of poetry and immersed himself in beauty. He would take me to lunch and we would share theological questions and ideas. When George passed, his wife Anne, a dear friend and modern day mystic, invited me to preach at his memorial service. Read more

While we landed in different places of practice and profession of faith, both George and I were in the conversation of faith. In fact, I take great joy and comfort from the conversation of George’s life. He never left the conversation, even if he was sometimes a frustrating and antagonistic conversation partner. Read more

When faith is about appearance, entitlement and exclusion, it is deadly. It deserves the strongest of rebukes. Followers of Jesus must be vigilant about choosing love not exclusion, aligning with the margins of our world, blessing the world with goodness and generosity. Read more

With all the ways that the Bible and Jesus have been co-opted for bad politics and abusive behavior, we can’t afford to let this one slide. We must be clear about how the Bible has authority, not just make it an unquestioned authority. Read more

What if God's movement in the world happens in the chaos rather than some disconnected utopia available to only a select few? What if the sacred emerges from messiness, not perfection? Read more

I learned that all truth is God’s truth whether it comes from the Apostle Paul or Sigmund Freud. The problem isn’t in the Biblical text or the scientific data, the problem is in our interpretation. I learned to not be afraid to explore and experience the world. God is truth and any truth I found would be a part of God. Read more

In 1994, I moved to Central Europe to work with a Christian mission organization a year after graduation. In language classes, I made my first real honestly non-Christian friends. I had all sorts of ideas about needing to convert them, but they converted me with their reasonable questions of faith and their global perspective on the world. They were concerned about nuclear stockpiles and the environment while I wanted them to say a short prayer to save their souls. Read more

My theological and philosophical intuitions found expression in the papers that I wrote on salvation, suffering, and biblical exegesis. Alongside the intellectual journey, a good therapist who understood the particularities of fundamentalism, helped me unravel how interwoven faith was with my identity. Read more

As I look back on ten years of pastoring, these kinds of stories have been the best part of my job: when the passion and spirit of people in a congregation rise to meet the world’s need. I am so grateful to have pastored two congregations full of devoted, engaged, activated and motivated folks who take their faith out into the world. Read more

I have come to new ways of spiritual experience that I trust. Silence, tears, laughter, trembling lips, time-tested spiritual masters like Thomas Merton and Catherine of Siena, embodied meditation — I’m learning to listen for the “sound of the genuine” as Howard Thurman named it. And slowly, I’m learning to trust it again. Read more

But for whoever needs to hear this: grieve, rage, take a break, draw boundaries. Do all of that. And still, allow for the possibility of a settling after the storm. Keep a tiny door open for the grace of forgiveness. Read more

How we put words to the mystery of God effects how we see our world, who we are, and the meaning of our lives. Much of what we think of as “gospel truth” was constructed from the spaces of empire, not from the margins. As poet Denise Levertov wrote, “We have only begun to imagine the fullness of life.” The intersection of voices across identities and experiences in this time gives us fresh invitations to deconstruct and reconstruct theology. Read more

Is God’s justice retributive? A glance at twentieth century history demonstrates that retributive justice is a reflection of the worst of human nature. Seeking a just punishment for wrongs only escalates into anger and alienation. “An eye for an eye will leave everyone blind,” Gandhi reportedly said. Retributive justice is ineffective at achieving genuine reconciliation. Richard Rohr once said in a podcast that if God is not better than the best human we know, it’s not God. Retributive justice is not humans at their best. Is God bound to it? Read more

The embrace of God in Christ goes on in endless possibility, fueled and made real by the Holy Spirit. In truthful embrace, we are made at-one with God. Read more

The Bible has all sorts of configurations about salvation and reconciliation. There is no one biblical answer to just about anything. As a Christian, I see the Bible as the revelation of God through Jesus. Everything gets filtered through what I see in the trajectory of the stories and impact of Jesus’ life. Read more

“At church, you don’t get to create your playlist, you can’t “unfriend” anyone, you may hear something that doesn’t confirm your bias, and you expose yourself to an ancient text and traditions that don’t always sound good to modern ears. All of that is beautiful and hard.” Read more

God did not need Jesus to die on the cross. We needed the truth-telling moment that is the full arc of Jesus’ life to see who God is: God welcomes sinners and saints! The first will be last and the last will be first! Union with God is possible in human flesh! Love is stronger than death! Read more

“You are loved before you are born. You are loved every day of your life. You will be loved in whatever is beyond this. For me, that love is absolutely rooted in what I see of God through Jesus Christ, but I trust that it extends beyond any human hoops or actions or “professions of faith.” It is stronger and bigger than we are and it will catch us every time, from now and forever.” Read more

Grace comes to we who are lost in our defenses and loves us just as we are. Grace weaves its way into the darkness of our lives, illuminating hope. Grace gives us the courage to take the next step to wholeness before we could imagine what the whole journey will be. Grace stitches together the broken pieces of our hearts. Grace is a table set before us in the presence of our enemies (external and internal). Grace makes wholeness possible for everyone. Read more

We are at a place in church history where new confessions must be written. They may not end up as official church documents, but many are struggling to find language for the faith they possess but don’t yet have words for. We need ways to talk about our faith that leave room for play and mystery, but are concrete and simple enough to grasp and work with in our everyday lives. Read more

I want a God who knows more than my middle-class American experience can tell me. I want a God who is beyond the light of this present life and whose love continues into eternity, whatever that will look like. Yes, Abyss is a great name for God because there is so much I don’t know and mysteries far beyond my comprehension. A God whose chasm of love does not end is the only God that makes sense to me. Read more

Fearless questioning has led to seeing my life story in a different way and finding emotional healing. Fearless questioning has introduced me to experiences of God as the Abyss like Catherine of Siena describes. Fearless questioning has forced me to change habits that harm the earth and be more conscious of how I can use my power for the good of others. Fearless questioning helps me be in hospital rooms and by death beds without having to contain or codify life’s darkest and most mysterious experiences. Fearless questioning means I don’t have to have answers. Read more

The path to liberation is paved with humility and realism that takes us beyond polarities of glory or humiliation and bring us into a continuum of growth in which our liberation is bound up with the liberation of all. Read more

The Mystery that is God does its work within us. When I think of the future, I often think about what God is going to do in spite of us, but Paul says we are a part of that future as we allow God’s power to do its work within us.

What does it take to participate in that kind of future? Read more

I have begun the practice of, “I don’t know.” Every time I say it, it is an act of vulnerability, and every time I am so grateful that I opened up to learn something or to consider a fresh perspective. My relationships deepen, my leadership sharpens, and my soul swells when I ask a question and admit what I don’t know. I’ve realized that no one grows up or lives in exactly the same world and each of us brings fresh knowledge and insight to conversations. Getting over what I “should” know and being curious about what others know is a lifelong practice for me. Read more

I will never grow longer limbs or change my shape or have a great metabolism. But I have begun to accept that the body I have been given is my earthly home. It is the place from which I love, pray, give and receive. It is what I have. And to reject it, be angry at it, or to cut it off from my consciousness is denying my capacity to love God and the world with all of who I am. Read more

We keep boundaries around our identities, but we enter into the embrace of others — taking their perspective and personhood into ourselves. We also let go of the embrace and return to ourselves. However, with porous boundaries, we allow our selves to shift and change without losing who we are. Read more

My major in college was intercultural studies and psychology. I specialized in cross-cultural transition and in the cultures of Central and Southeastern Europe. I thought I was going to be a missionary for the rest of my life. For a variety of reasons I only stayed in Europe about 2.5 years before coming home. I got married, had babies and put to bed the part of myself that loved to travel and work internationally… Read more

Item descriptionI still am at my absolute happiest in a new city with nothing to do but explore. Budapest is where I became an adult. Instead of converting the world, it converted me to beauty, adventure and the possibilities of what happens when we walk out the door with an open heart. Read more

I have always been passionate about friendship. It’s a running joke that I have multiple best friends. For me, witnessing and being witnessed is fuel for the journey of life. It is an endless source of growth, joy, and challenge. Read more

What keeps me pliable is that I now understand that racism is built into all of us in this nation. It’s a source of corporate shame and culpability. But, there is no healing without seeing and without humility. If this is what critics mean by critical race theory, then I’m all for it. I don’t see a future without it. Read more

Fully embracing those who have not been able to bring their full selves to church is healing for all of us. It is like finding members of your family that you didn’t know you were missing but without whom your family wasn’t complete. Read more

Whether it’s marriage or parenting, don’t trust anyone who says there is a formula. Just make it a beautiful mess of forgiveness, compassion and love. Read more

I find it hard to be a writer in the digital frenzy of words. I’m not ready to make same day comments on today’s headlines. My best ideas brew in my head for years and become clear on their own clock. My favorite writers are the ones who write from well-worn paths and slow wisdom. I don’t like to spend a lot of time on social media and am suspicious of sound bites. Read more

Living life undefended is the only conditions in which wisdom can be found and it is what we most fear. While I thought I would wear wisdom like a suit of armor that would prevent me from being hurt, it is wisdom that keeps me more like a child, with curiosity and vulnerability as my best tools. Read more

Stop drawing with an image of God that makes you sad. Together, let’s color with an image of God that makes the world glad, using paintbrushes of justice and beauty and grace and love. Read more