paravanes:meditations

A thought for the time after Easter:   "When our hope is in something that transcends our circumstances, our circumstances cannot take away our hope." --Gregory Spencer in Awakening the Quieter Virtues , Inter-Varsity Press, 2010.

Several Sundays ago, we had a last minute emergency regarding a guest minister and I was asked to preach if the guest was unable to make it. I agreed, and began to think about what I would say to the congregation. I meditated on what is the most important reminder the church universal needs regarding who we are and why we are here.  I was led to this passage from 2 Timothy 1:12: “…I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.” Here are the words of a man facing execution, a man  who has been abandoned by his associates and betrayed by those who thought he could rely upon. This man, Paul the apostle, is facing death because of his testimony for and about Jesus Christ. Paul, a man who was widely regarded as a powerhouse intellectual in his day and time, had been cajoled and laughed at for believing in fairy tales and false truths as he traveled, taught, and preached the

As I am making my way through this Lenten season, I am constantly reminded of how much personal choice many of us sacrifice each day. Although we were created for free choice and intentional action, it's easy to fall away from choice and into routine.  Lent feels more challenging because I make choices different from those I've become accustomed to making. I work hard to create a new pattern of eating, or exercising, or praying, or sharing. After forty days, perhaps I will continue to embrace my new pattern. Perhaps I will softly sigh and return to what I "gave up" for Lent. deliberateLIFE magazine  offers a different way. It's possible to live Lent everyday without feeling deprived or "out of sync". It's possible to live well, happily (much of the time!) and  intentionally without leaving home, quitting your job, traveling around the world,.or giving up brownies. What makes the difference is how deeply and regularly I engage in deliberate, inte

Graphic is from reachingcampus.com More insights from my Lenten reading, this one from  pages 44 and 45 of Joan Chittister's   Wisdom Distilled From The Daily . "So, even liking one another is not enough. The truth about Christian community is that we have to be committed to the same eternal things together. What we want to live for and how we intend to live out those values are the central questions of community. Without that understanding, communities fail and marriages dissolve and people leave religious life and nations go to war." "Another function of community is to enable us to be about something greater than ourselves. It is no small task in a world that tells us" (especially in North America-- my words ) "constantly that we ourselves are enough to be concerned about and that everything else will take care of itself. Well, that kind of enlightened altruism has not saved us from the destruction of the ozone layer, or the deterioration