by David Anderson
Luke 2: 8-18 “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened,which the Lord has made known to us.” We’re often told that shepherds were a rough, disreputable lot. They were poor, uneducated, uncouth, we are reminded. Considered thieves and liars. All of that is true, but that depiction misses the […]
by David Anderson 10 Comments Filed Under: Advent, Belief, Community, Love
Genesis 7: 11-24 “They went into the ark with Noah, two and twoof all flesh…and God shut him in.” On Noah’s ark there was no rudder. God gave Noah incredibly detailed instructions for constructing this floating zoo, dimensions of roofs and decks, but no steering mechanism. Have you ever noticed this? Noah doesn’t need to […]
by David Anderson 14 Comments Filed Under: Advent, Belief, Discernment, Faith in Action, Faith/Trust, Letting Go, Surrender
Luke 1: 39-45 In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to acity of Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. In Luke’s telling, the first thing Mary does after Gabriel’s stunning announcement, is to pack a bag and head for her older cousin’s home. Elizabeth […]
by David Anderson 5 Comments Filed Under: Advent, Awareness, Belief, Choice, Discernment, Faith/Trust, Surrender
There was an old saying, that people of faith should seek to understand their world with “the Bible in one hand, and the newspaper in the other.” For the last hundred years it’s been increasingly difficult to interpret the Bible, and now nobody trusts a newspaper. Maybe just as well. The idea that we could […]
by David Anderson 7 Comments Filed Under: Adult Spirituality, authority, Awareness, Belief, Mystery, Nature/Creation, Reality--trusting it, Seeing
A Prayer to the God Who Fell From Heaven If you had stayedtightfisted in the skyand watched us thrashwith all the patience of a pipe smoker,I would pray like a golden bulletaimed at your heart.But the story saysyou criedand so heavy was the tearyou fell with it to earthhere like a baritone in a barit […]
by David Anderson 11 Comments Filed Under: Belief, Grace, Lent, Love, Mercy
Speaking of her early stage of faith, writer and retreat leader Paula D’Arcy shared a dream in which the kitchen table of her childhood disappeared. That table symbolized the beautiful security of her early years. It was the heart of her childhood home, where she learned her Baltimore Catechism, mastered every question, and came to […]
by David Anderson 4 Comments Filed Under: Adult Spirituality, Belief, Change, Faith/Trust, Family, Lent, Letting Go, Reality--trusting it, Surrender
Every once in a while, you hear a term that perfectly describes something you’ve experienced but didn’t have a name for. That’s how I felt when someone used the phrase “spiritual bypass,” coined by psychologist John Welwood in the 80s. He defined it as a “tendency to use spiritual ideas and practices to sidestep or […]
by David Anderson 4 Comments Filed Under: Adult Spirituality, Belief, Lent, Reality--trusting it
How I pray is breathe.” -Thomas Merton I grew up with the slogan, “Prayer changes things,” which I believed. I was just wrong about what got changed. I thought it could change my lot, save my soul, rescue people I cared about. I hoped I could change God’s mind. Not surprisingly, that kind of prayer […]
by David Anderson 5 Comments Filed Under: Awareness, Belief, Breathing, Change, Daily Practice, Grace, Healing, Lent, Letting Go, Now/ the Present, Prayer/Meditation, Surrender, Transformation