Harper heard the sound of gravel crunching under the tires of Jim’s truck. He dreaded seeing the old man, but he was also glad he’d come. Jim was an old friend of Harper’s father. Though there was no promise made when Harper’s dad died, Jim seemed to take it upon himself to stay in touch.

Think of the one you love the most.

Now start describing her to all of us.

Harper woke suddenly, that is suddenly from a dead sleep he was wide awake. He hoped it was at least four in the morning. He didn’t want to get up, but he could see through to getting out of bed at four because the coffee maker was set to brew that early. He could get a cup and go out on the back porch and sit alongside the day as everything rose with the Sun. He hoped it was at least four, because he was sure he couldn’t get back to sleep.

In lieu of happiness he settles for the wooden rocker on the back porch where he listens to the frogs talk in their pond. His anger, an accumulation of so many seasons of sorrow, is absorbed by the sound of the trees creaking in the wind and for a little while the storm in his mind is held at bay, just barely. She’s finally leaving. He hates it, her leaving, with all his heart, but he knows she’s right to go.

The Bible is a storm. 

The text is a struggle of words

thrust into the shape of myriad stories.

Hail and high winds batter the reader 

with the confounding mystery of God 

and his recalcitrant, lovely people.

For followers of Jesus it all boils down to this: we want to be “rooted and grounded in love.” People who are “rooted and grounded in love” have been given the gift of a realization that their ground, the “root” of their being, is the love of God dwelling inside their actual body. Thus, their daily starting place is love. They come at the day before them from a place of rootedness in love.

The old man’s wife died suddenly after 60 years of marriage. His priest, a much younger man, asked if he could come over for a visit. “I’ll come to you," said the old man. “Meet me down by the creek?”

Mark 4:35-41

You’re in a boat out on the water. You are the boat and the water is your life. A storm kicks up out of nowhere or maybe it has been slowly building for years. Either way the wind and waves are like a wild animal battering your boat and body and racing around inside your chest. The fear and anxiety caused by the storm within and without are too much, you don’t know how you can go on.

Discouragement is a perfectly normal part of the spiritual journey. In the first half of the journey (which can go on for many, many years if not most of one’s life) we meet our discouragements with prayer, church attendance, and by reaching out to trusted friends for spiritual insight. We are consoled in our discouragement, and we carry on. This rhythm is just as it should be, and it is good.

“When the sins of others come to mind, the soul that wants peace should flee from such thoughts as she would run from the pains of hell.”

Julian of Norwich

Shortly before he died Jesus said this to his disciples, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many rooms.”

Shortly after she died my sister, Laura, came to me in a dream and showed me an extra room in my house that I did not know was there. I was amazed. I said to her, “There is so much room in here.”

The earth is spinning on its axis at about 1,000 miles per hour. In addition to that motion the earth is orbiting the sun at about 67,000 miles per hour. The sun, the earth, and the entire solar system are orbiting around the center of our galaxy at about 504,000 miles per hour. The Milky Way galaxy itself is moving through the wider universe at about 90,000 miles per hour. The cells in your body regenerate daily by the billions. Everything is in motion. 

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.