Recently I was writing a sermon and a story about my sister, Laura, came to mind. It seemed like a good story to use to further illustrate the point I was trying to make. I wrote for a little while and then began to feel self-conscious and doubtful as to whether using that particular story was the right choice.

Years ago, when she was giving a talk on how tragedy has shaped her life, the wise and quite wonderful teacher, Paula D’Arcy, said somewhat spontaneously, “God comes to you disguised as your life.” That line for me is a deep well from which I have drawn meaning and healing time and time again.

When everything feels heavy and dim-lit I remember what the teacher said, “The kingdom of God is among you.” Then I hear him add, “Look deeper.”

There was a father who had two sons. One was good for whatever you needed and the other was good for nothing. That’s the way it seemed most days anyway. The boy's father was divided on the matter. He didn’t have to say, “No,” to one and he couldn’t say, “No”, to the other.

The Ascension is a pretty wild thing to wrap your mind around. If you said to me, “I am down with Jesus and the resurrection, but I don’t believe in the Ascension,” I would say, “Yeah, I get it. I hear you. I am all in on it, but it is kind of a stretch for a lot of people. Don’t worry, you don’t have to believe in the Ascension to go to heaven.”

At the end of a long hallway in our church my friend, Dan, put a new trash bag into a trash can that he had just emptied. It was the most ordinary thing to do on a very ordinary day. As he was pressing the bag into the bottom of the can I rushed up to him and delivered some bad news about some gossip that had been spread about us by a fellow named John.

There is a story of a man who was married to a woman and he did something terrible that harmed their marriage and devastated the woman.