by David Anderson
When people find out you’re newly retired they often ask how you like it. I’ve tried to be honest and tell people it was hard for me. I thought that just because I knew all the pitfalls of over-identifying with your job—and then losing that total identity—I wouldn’t have to fall in that pit. But […]
by David Anderson 13 Comments Filed Under: Adult Spirituality, Awareness, Discernment, Identity, Letting Go, Vocation/ Calling
It’s always a revelation when it finally dawns on parents that most of what they love about their children, and most everything that drives them crazy, is merely a genetic reincarnation of themselves. We adore the little dimple we share, and swell with pride when they show the same early inclination to art or music. […]
by David Anderson 8 Comments Filed Under: Adult Spirituality, Awareness, Breathing, Identity, Now/ the Present, Prayer/Meditation
swore with an oath, “I do not know the man.” But it wasn’t exactly true. While Jesus is on trial, Peter is hanging around the courthouse when a maid recognizes him. She points her finger, “You also were with Jesus the Galilean.” Peter denies it and slinks off, only to be fingered twice more. Each […]
by David Anderson 4 Comments Filed Under: Awareness, Grace, Identity, Lent, Vocation/ Calling
used to be Saul, and the name change—signaling a new beginning—may have been the only way he could have gone on, could have lived with himself. We first meet him at a murder. Young Stephen is being stoned for his faith in Jesus, and the accusers who took off their coats to limber up for […]
by David Anderson 2 Comments Filed Under: Change, Character, Conversion, Epiphany, Faith/Trust, Forgiveness, Freedom, Grace, Gratitude, Identity, Lent, Mercy, Repentance, Surrender, Transformation, Uncategorized
“After a certain number of years,” said the writer Cynthia Ozick, “our faces become our biographies. We get to be responsible for our faces.” A few days ago, shaving, I noticed the beginnings of jowls. My chin was holding its own but on either side near the corners of my mouth, my face was starting […]
by David Anderson 11 Comments Filed Under: Awareness, Beauty, Change, Daily Practice, Identity, Intimacy, Love, Reality--trusting it, Surrender, Transformation
Matthew 22: 15-22 “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” At Advent we say, “Come, Lord Jesus.” The Lord of your life is the one who receives your highest loyalty. Who is that for you? When Jesus’ enemies asked him the loaded question about paying taxes to Caesar, Jesus asked for a coin stamped with Caesar’s […]
by David Anderson 3 Comments Filed Under: Advent, authority, Identity, Surrender
Isaiah 40:1-8 “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” I want to go home. If you’ve ever been far from home, felt lost or trapped in the wrong place, you know how the people of Israel felt in exile. They want to go home, […]
by David Anderson 7 Comments Filed Under: Advent, Faith/Trust, Faithfulness, Hope, Identity, Salvation, Waiting
A few weeks before her mother died, my wife Pam discovered that her mother had been married—and divorced—before she met and married Pam’s father. It was a shock to Pam because, as an only child, she wondered how her mother could have withheld the story of her life. And then, of course, in the light […]
by David Anderson 10 Comments Filed Under: Awareness, Character, Family, Identity, Intimacy, Lent