Remember those days of waiting in the school gym to be picked for dodgeball? Maybe you weren’t the last one left standing. Maybe you were second to last. Or maybe you were the first one chosen each time, leaving the rest of us peons to wallow in our jealousy! Most of us know the pain […]
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I love November! Much as I’m aware of the importance of giving thanks throughout the year, I need this time to remind me and help me develop an attitude of gratitude. I need this Season of Thanksgiving, Season of Gratitude! Thanksgiving has been my favorite holiday for years. It doesn’t require buying a lot of […]
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“Why are you cast down, O my soul?” Psalm 43 asks. Why indeed? Why not? Certainly there are many reasons to be downcast. Most scholars believe that this short psalm was actually part of Psalm 42. There are many good reasons for this, a key one being that the last verse, “Why are you cast […]
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What is your deepest desire? What do you long for? For many in Michigan, with our terrible roads and infrastructure, we might long for smooth, pot-hole free roads, and clean, safe water coming from our faucets. This past week, one such dream has been fulfilled for me as roads which required dodging back and forth, […]
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We are in a season of change and transition. Trees are changing color, marking the beginning of Autumn. The weather has been up and down, warm and cold. The calendar marks the end of summer as September 21, the beginning of Autumn as September 22, but we know it’s not as simple as that. There […]
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Karma – what goes around comes around! The writer of Psalm 41 is looking back at a time of distress and remarking how God delivered him from this situation. “Blessed is he who considers the poor! The Lord delivers him in the day of trouble.” (1) It’s a reminder that, “blessed are the merciful, for […]
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As I roamed the ruins beside San Francisco el Grande Church in Antigua, Guatemala, on a sunny morning, I decided to climb a set of stairs. By the time I reached the top of the stairs I was short of breath from the heat and the climb as I stepped into a panorama that took […]
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Random reflections on Psalm 39: God, why does life have to be so hard? I know my sinfulness, you know it too—after all you created me. If you know my nature then why be so harsh when I act in accord with that nature? When I behave in ways that are all too human? Remember, […]
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On a rainy September 11, in 2010, on the campus of Michigan State University, my daughter Ruth married her college sweetheart. They had been aware of the significance of the day as they struggled to find a date that worked. They finally determined that this was one way to redeem a day fraught which such […]
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Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his book, Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible, tell us: “If we want to read and to pray the prayers of the Bible and especially the Psalms, therefore, we must not ask first what they have to do with us, but what they have to do with Jesus Christ. We must […]
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