by David Anderson
May 16, 2023. I kneel beside a small hole in the earth. Today is our daughter Maggy’s fortieth birthday and we have given her, according to her wish, a weeping willow to mark the occasion. Since, in a fit of spring madness, I have just planted over forty trees and bushes around our home, I […]
by David Anderson 20 Comments Filed Under: Blessing, creation, Family, Grace, Gratitude, Nature/Creation
Here’s Easter in two contrasting images. The first is the kind of Easter picture most of us are familiar with. It’s the lone Jesus whooshing up out of the tomb. There’s nothing wrong about the image. Jesus certainly defeated death. But, in their new book, “Resurrecting Easter,” John Dominic Crossan and Sarah Crossan identify this […]
by David Anderson 10 Comments Filed Under: Community, Grace, Heaven, Lent, Mercy
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
“We love because God loved us first” (1 John 4:19). That truth is especially sublime when we hear it in Holy Week, when we watch with awe as someone embraces the whole world in love—and chooses to die rather than limiting or qualifying that love. If Jesus had recanted, if he had just admitted that, […]
by David Anderson 3 Comments Filed Under: Awareness, Change, Choice, Daily Practice, Family, Grace, Healing, Lent, Love, Surrender, Transformation
Palm Sunday—the Sunday of the Passion—is a good moment to stop and consider this question. When I tried to answer it, my first thoughts leapt to the heroic. What cross would I die on? What great cause could demand, as the hymn sings it, “my soul, my life, my all”? Once I recognized the ego […]
by David Anderson 4 Comments Filed Under: Awareness, Change, Choice, Fear, Forgiveness, Grace, Lent, Letting Go, Reality--trusting it, Surrender, Transformation
Plenty of people, especially near the end of life, claim they have no regrets. We ought to feel sorry for them. To regret something we’ve done is to acknowledge a higher principle than we were able to live up to. Regret can strengthen our moral character: Never again will I do something like that. If […]
by David Anderson 8 Comments Filed Under: Awareness, Character, Grace, Healing, Lent, Mercy
Jesus did not try to change one person. He certainly didn’t set out to change the world. We hear a lot these days about “theory of change.” It’s a term in non-profit, philanthropy and development that describes the organization’s goal of social change and the step-by-step process for achieving it. I’m sure it does all […]
by David Anderson 6 Comments Filed Under: Awareness, Change, Family, Grace, Lent, Transformation
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