Knowledge puffs up. Love builds up (1 Cor 8:1). I write and I preach to strengthen people's faith in love. Let’s face it, I write and preach to strengthen MY faith in love. Faith that you are not defined only by what you do or what you’ve done. But the WHOLE of you. Your experiences, your stories, are your wisdom. The more you tap into that wisdom the more you will discover and embrace who you are becoming.
I’ve tried to organize the posts - the lovely circles - by the topics that inform my preaching, coaching and teaching. I hope the experiences, stories, and wisdom shared here, prompt some supportive insights of your own.
All Articles
Are You There God? It’s Me, Job.
“Are you there, God?” That’s a question asked again and again in scripture and in the stories of our time - like teen fiction! Because it’s a question most of us can relate to.
You Are Enough
You are enough! I find it easy to agree but hard to internalize. That’s why I wear it and preach it and share it because I think lots of us struggle with faith in our enoughness, too.
What Makes You Click?
There had to have been some quality of Jesus that propelled those disciples to go and see what he was up to, or at least where he was staying. John the Baptist got them to pay attention.
Change of Plans
The big events, the ones where there is a before and an after, rarely play out exactly as we anticipate. Because we are expert at creating future realities in our minds. Setting internal expectations and believing what we dream of and plan for will come to pass in the ways we imagine.
Incarnate Words
God’s language is a force. It has power and is alive. The fourth evangelist uses holy speech to proclaim that the Word has gone forth towards God’s purpose. The purpose of bringing life and light into the world. A purpose that those of us in the world can choose to see or not. But regardless of what we choose we still have received grace upon grace.
Words – speech – bring forth incarnation. Language creates a reality.
Christmas
God’s life and our life are one life. This is the gift of Christmas. This unveiling of who we are is what enables us to shine our divine light, this little light of ours, in the world. You and I and all the people in those pews are the lights that shine in darkness for one another. In ordinary homes, and ordinary churches, through our incredibly wonderful, unique and ordinary lives.
God’s Faith in Our Resolve
You and I and the people we serve are part of a larger story. We have our resolve. We make our plans. We believe we are determining our future. But then, God breaks in. God shows us a sign on a road or in a dream. God asks us to walk towards people and communities it would be easier to walk away from. Because the circumstances present challenges that seem impossible to overcome.
Finding Joy in Doubt
In your times of darkness, what kept you looking for the light? Did you rely on the witness of others? Did you pray your questions fervently? Did your experience open your heart to deeper empathy and understanding? Acknowledging and exploring doubts and questions is something the prophets have always done.
The Quality of Our Attention
What does your quality of attention say about the identity you are cultivating? Where do you bring your sense of presence? We can appreciate our routines because unlike so many other activities they are not driven by a desire to please. They simply encourage. They get you in the moment.
Worst-case Scenario Planner
I’m not sure when I went from eagerly awaiting my future to constantly catastrophizing it. It’s not as constant as it was - thanks to time, therapy, 12-step wisdom and Brené Brown. Back in the day, I was the “Worst Case Scenario Planner.”
Seeing is Believing
What do RuPaul’s Drag Race and Thomas Merton have in common? When we can see things as they really are, we see beauty, love, joy, friendship, delight in all things. Not just preconceived “correct” things.
Blessed Assurance & Faithful Endurance
I’m not entirely sure what it means to “gain our soul” but I know what it means to speak from it. May we be prompted to do that! Share our enduring stories of strength and hope to encourage all of us.
Who Doesn’t Love a Good Mystery?
If God loves everyone, invites everyone, welcomes everyone into a relationship of belovedness and belonging, why do so many of us have a story of being made to feel like we don’t belong at church?
Knit Together as Saints
Whenever I’ve attended a clergy conference, retreat, workshop, delegation, convention, you name it – there are clusters of collars, knitting. Someone in your pews needs to be reminded of an experience, a person stitched into their heart.
Displaced Anxiety
We are all, individuals and institutions alike, reluctant to wrestle with, let alone expose, the dark stuff inside. What shared shadows keep us from reaching out for our neighbor, or ourselves?
10 Podcasts to Prompt Your Preaching
Hands down the 10 best podcasts to prompt your preaching. These will leave you thinking and inspired.
Love Prompts Me to Preach
Love is my prompt, every time I preach. It’s the one sermon I feel I preach again and again. Even though you and I know they are all different. In this new space I want to prompt myself and prompt you in your preaching!
