by David Anderson
Luke 1:26-38 (The Message) And Mary said,Yes, I see it all now:I’m the Lord’s maid,ready to serve.Let it be with mejust as you say. The tales of Greek and Roman gods appearing to mortal women are almost always forceful. Whatever they want you to do—is done. You can’t say no. Yet when our God seeks […]
by David Anderson 18 Comments Filed Under: Advent, Choice, Faith/Trust, Faithfulness, Surrender, Vocation/ Calling
Five people are trapped in a titanium tube on the floor of the Atlantic ocean, and I can’t get them off my mind. I am constantly checking my news feed. Sonar is picking up tapping sounds. Hope surges, then I read how unlikely it is that help could arrive in time. In some real way […]
by David Anderson 15 Comments Filed Under: Faith/Trust, Faithfulness, Fear, Salvation
I think of South Dakota, the place I left on my way to college, as Garrison Keillor’s Lake Woebegone: “The little town that time forgot and the decades cannot improve.” But, as I found on my visit last week, time has not unremembered my old home. It’s both the same as ever, and yet dramatically […]
by David Anderson 9 Comments Filed Under: Adult Spirituality, Change, Faith/Trust, Faithfulness, Family, Fear, Letting Go, Reality--trusting it, Surrender
At the heart of the “Greatest Story Ever Told” is a betrayal. No one would call their child Judas. The name is slimed with centuries of condemnation: the lily-livered turncoat who betrayed an innocent man for thirty pieces of silver. We might understand how the crowd could turn on Jesus, but how could someone from […]
by David Anderson 3 Comments Filed Under: Awareness, Character, Faithfulness, Grace, Mercy
About now, many of us are looking at our New Year’s resolutions and wondering what happened to our resolve. I don’t care much for resolutions, since they are mostly attempts to arm-wrestle small problems into submission without having to look plainly at one’s life. I like “priorities” instead of “resolutions.” Which reminds me immediately of […]
by David Anderson 5 Comments Filed Under: Awareness, Change, Daily Practice, Faithfulness, Happiness, Now/ the Present, Patience
I am sitting at a bus stop in Hellertown, Pennsylvania. I am not the one hoping to board a bus, it is my son-in-law, Andy. Andy and Maggy have come out to our home in Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving. Today, though, it is time to head back to New York. Maggy is staying the day since […]
by David Anderson 3 Comments Filed Under: Awareness, Faithfulness, Letting Go, Now/ the Present, Patience, Reality--trusting it, Waiting
On Saturday my father, Gerald Anderson, turned 94. My brother wrote a birthday email and copied all seven of us siblings and all the in-laws. He ended by listing five gifts that Dad has passed on to all of us. 1. That you know yourself to be loved by God, 2. That you have lived in […]
by David Anderson 9 Comments Filed Under: Character, Daily Practice, Faithfulness, Family, Grace, Gratitude, Happiness
On the odyssey of life we need some way of knowing where we are, and whether we’re headed the right direction. In English, to be “oriented” is to know where east is. Historically, church buildings are situated so that the altar is on the east wall, and almost always a window opens to receive the […]
by David Anderson 2 Comments Filed Under: Character, Community, Daily Practice, Faithfulness, Prayer/Meditation, Seeing, Silence, Vocation/ Calling