Love is an enlarging adventure, and I’m experiencing it with new eyes. My daughter and I have a unique love. It is unlike any love I have had for anyone—ever. The love I have for my wife is a unique love, a love only for her. It is a love unshared, uncompromising, untamed, tailored, tethered, distinct and unique among all the individuals I have loved from my youth until now…
It struck me that Elsie, a 3-week old baby when I wrote this blog, will not remember all that her mom went through to bring her into the world. Neither will she recall all the sleepless nights when she was being cared for. Elsie won’t remember being carried from place to place, from room to room. The feedings, baths, clothing, diaper changes, burpings, rocking her to sleep, and playtimes. They’ll only remain a part of our cherished memories…
Right now, my daughter, Elsie, has one language-crying. It’s not my ideal way of communicating. Like the Spirit, she communicates with “groans too deep for words.” She cries. I come running. Is she too hot or too cold? Is her diaper wet or dirty? Is she tired or gassy? Is she hangry? (That was not a typo, FYI) Does she want to be held or is she bored? Like a good father I trouble shoot, trying to figure out her needs…
My 5 week old daughter, Elsie, can’t do anything for herself. She can’t feed herself, clean herself, clothe herself or anything. She can’t contribute to the family. All she can do is feel and receive. She has me thinking a lot on how the Father loves us and on what it means to be enough…
Coming out of the shadow of our lives, wearing the costume of our ideal, is our self-critic with its judging, shaming, and blaming. Our ideal can either function as a guide into the future or a judge from the future. Usually, it’s a judge. We need to renegotiate our relationship with our ideal, the future version of our lives. If not, it could be dangerous. Dangerous? Yes, dangerous…
Oct 21, 2020 - 1 Peter 5:6-14
1 Peter 5:6-14
Continuing on with the story from previous weeks, Jesus commissions the disciples just as the Father commissioned him. He breathes on them while saying receive the Spirit. Literally it says, “he breathed into them.” The language of breathing into shows up in the Greek translation of a few Old Testament stories. For example, God breathing into Adam giving life…
Oct 7, 2020 - 1 Peter 5:1-5
1 Peter 5:1-5
Sep 30, 2020 - 1 Peter 4:12-19
1 Peter 4:12-19
How long have you sat with the thought that God calls you family? Pause and let the meaning intoxicate you. Jesus unites himself to the disciples by calling them brothers. The New creation, through the death and resurrection of Christ, has produced a unity. Unity has occurred, a unity so amazing that his brothers have now entered into Jesus’ very own relationship with the One who loved him before the creation of the world…