Giving Thanks When We Are Struggling

American Thanksgiving Day is on Thursday and many of my friends are preparing to get together with friends and family to celebrate and give thanks.  Some are struggling because they feel they have  very little to give thanks for this year – they have lost jobs and homes or loved ones.  Many more are fearful [...]

A Thanksgiving Prayer

American Thanksgiving is less than a week away and we are all looking forward to what is fondly called Turkey Day.  It is my favourite American custom which I have embraced with great enthusiasm not just because I love good food and good fellowship but because I love the opportunity to think about what I [...]

Walking with God – Why Is It So Hard?

Several months ago I wrote a post in which I commented on the fact that in order for people to move from communities of poverty to the middle class they need to be willing to give up relationships for accomplishment and efficiency.  I have thought about this a lot over the last few months – [...]

My God My Rope

While Tom & I were in Australia I had a number of opportunities to conduct my seminar Rhythms of Grace. As part of this I always get people to reflect on everyday events and encourage them to write a prayer that reflects how they have encountered God in the midst of that activity.  Here is [...]

Fruit That Will Last

Tom and I are now at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg Virginia still trying to get our clocks turned around from the trip to Australia.  This is definitely not the best way to model a balanced way of life though I am really looking forward to our time here.
Part of my morning Bible reading was [...]

A garden of solitude

It is a beautiful evening in Seattle and I am sitting watching the sunset over the Olympic mountains.  It is great to have a quiet moment as Tom & I will be travelling again tomorrow to Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg Virginia.  This will be our last trip until after Christmas for which I am [...]

A Prayer for the Earth from Brian McLaren

I have not had much to say about the Climate Change meeting in Copenhagen while I was travelling but this does not mean that the upcoming meeting has not been in my thoughts and prayers.  I think that this is probably the most important meeting on climate change that there has ever been and I [...]

A Prayer for All Saints Eve

We are back in Seattle our heads still whirring with the disorienting experience of starting the day with a beautiful spring morning and ending with blustery autumn weather.  I am also adjusting slowly to the images of pumpkins on doorsteps and scary halloween decorations all over the place – not something that Australia has yet [...]

Loving the Unloveable

I was just reading an article this morning about the wildlife we like to attract to our garden.  It talked about the fact that all of us love to see nice furry creatures like squirrels and winged creature like colourful birds and buuterflies out our windows.  We tend to ignore the destructiveness of some of [...]

Too Busy to Pray

Well the pace of life is ratcheting up as we get ready for our trip to Australia in 12 days as well as my trip to LA tomorrow for the West Coast Healthcare Missions Conference.  So many details and at the moment we do not have an assistant to help us.  And that all reminded [...]