by David Anderson
I’m sitting in church on Sunday, listening to a familiar gospel. The disciples have caught someone casting out demons, and, like good schoolboys, they report to the teacher that they “forbade” the man “because he was not following us.” Jesus wants none of it. He tells the boys to lay off the poor guy, who […]
by David Anderson 12 Comments Filed Under: Faith/Trust, Healing, Heaven, Now/ the Present, Salvation, Transformation
On Saturdays our companions are musicians. To accompany all those we’ve followed through Wild Places this week, I can’t think of a better song than “Poor Wayfaring Stranger.” It speaks of someone wandering, far from home. And it’s sung by Rhiannon Giddens, an Afro-Irish singer whose rendition will rend your heart. Watch and listen, and […]
by David Anderson 4 Comments Filed Under: Faith/Trust, Heaven, Justice/Peace, Lent
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
“Can you get that bread out of the oven?” Pam calls to me. “I think it’s done.” I open the oven door and a soft cloud of heat drifts over me. Then the smell wafts out, wave after wave—the yeasty aroma, the malted perfume, the toasted whiff of . . . I don’t know—heaven. Or […]
by David Anderson 9 Comments Filed Under: Daily Practice, Grace, Heaven, Love, Now/ the Present, Prayer/Meditation, Reality--trusting it
It is a moment of no significance. We are standing Christmas Day in the outdoor kitchen—adults in parkas and kids cavorting—gathered around the big propane burner my wife pulls out to fry doughnuts or fish and hush puppies or French fries, like her father did. Today it is paper-thin potato slices, bound with butter and […]
by David Anderson 16 Comments Filed Under: Awareness, Happiness, Heaven, Now/ the Present
Life each day presents us with the unknown. What will happen? What will not happen? Our great fear is simply not knowing what comes next—and our ultimate fear is of the end. What happens when we die? The big fear—of death—is expressed in all the little fears that roil our hearts, the hundred things each […]
by David Anderson 7 Comments Filed Under: Awareness, Death/Dying, Faith/Trust, Fear, Heaven, Hope, Letting Go, Love, Now/ the Present, Reality--trusting it
The secret of life takes us into unbelievable paradox—literally. We cannot believe it. The miraculous appears in the ordinary, the eternal hides among the transitory, the universal lays in the lap of the particular . . . and we can’t see it. That’s because in our yearning for the divine, we’ve always been taught to […]
by David Anderson 7 Comments Filed Under: Heaven, Now/ the Present, Seeing
This is called “The Best Poem in the World,” which isn’t true. But it is the best doggerel in the world. Read it and see if you don’t agree. The Best Poem in the World I was shocked, confused, bewildered as I entered Heaven’s door, Not by the beauty of it all, by the lights or […]
by David Anderson 13 Comments Filed Under: Faith/Trust, Grace, Heaven, Love, Mercy