by David Anderson
lived in a world without a past to go on. First Woman. She had no predecessors to look to. Imagine this. Eve appears one day in a lush garden, having no idea where she came from. There’s only one other human, a man, and he is her husband. She reaches for too much of this […]
by David Anderson Leave a Comment Filed Under: Faith/Trust, Family, Forgiveness, Grace, grief, Healing, Hope, Lent
Some people may be “easy to love,” but I haven’t met them. “Easy to like”? Sure. But love implies closeness, sometimes inescapable closeness. Love means blood or vows or commitments we have made to care for people. Sometimes a commitment chooses us: someone needs help and no one else is either able or willing. At […]
by David Anderson 12 Comments Filed Under: Awareness, Choice, Discernment, Family, Healing, Love, Mercy
Isaiah 2:1-6 “They shall beat their swords into plowshares,and their spears into pruning-knives.” On October 7th Yaron Bob was happily living in his kibbutz, one mile from the Gaza border. Then terror struck. “A lot of my friends were killed,” said Bob. He survived after hiding in a safe room for 33 hours with no […]
by David Anderson 1 Comment Filed Under: Advent, Conflict, Faith in Action, Healing, Justice/Peace, Peace, Transformation
Isaiah 7:10-14 “A woman is with child, and will bear a son,and will call him Emmanuel.” This is where we begin our Advent pilgrimage. A crib. The nativity scene is all there, Mary and Joseph, the shepherds and their sheep—except for the Child. The manger is empty. Let it stay that way, unfilled, for now. […]
by David Anderson 9 Comments Filed Under: Advent, Awareness, Happiness, Healing, Hope, Prayer/Meditation, Transformation
My father, as drawn by my nephew, Kasper Kavalaris I grew up in a Swedish Baptist Church in Yankton, South Dakota. My family sat in the second pew, one long enough to hold my two brothers, my four sisters, my parents, and me. We sang all the American gospel hymns—by Fannie Crosby, Charles Wesley, Ira […]
by David Anderson 7 Comments Filed Under: Abundance, Awareness, Family, Grace, Gratitude, grief, Happiness, Healing, Mercy, Surrender, Transformation
It’s hard to get people to kill other human beings—unless we can convince them that the enemy is not really human. The history of war shows us over and over the campaigns countries wage to dehumanize their enemies so that it will be possible to kill them without sadness, remorse or shame. Most of us […]
by David Anderson 7 Comments Filed Under: Discernment, Forgiveness, Healing, Justice/Peace, Mercy
Grace and gratitude belong together like heaven and earth. Grace evokes gratitude like the voice of an echo. Gratitude follows grace like thunder lightning. —Karl Barth The gratitude Barth speaks of is not happiness, certainly not elation. Maybe we feel grateful when something turns out perfectly, or our hard work is rewarded with some kind […]
by David Anderson 5 Comments Filed Under: Awe, Blessing, Daily Practice, Forgiveness, Grace, Gratitude, Happiness, Healing, Mercy, Salvation, Surrender, Transformation
One day, not long after we moved into the Rectory at Saint Luke’s Parish, one of my daughter’s friends—a young driver—was backing out of the driveway late at night and hit the column on the end of the old stone wall that ran along the road. The end-column, about a foot higher than the […]
by David Anderson 12 Comments Filed Under: Beauty, creativity, Grace, Healing, Transformation