by David Anderson
Sitting on a beach in Nova Scotia, watching kids play in the sand, I’m remembering a modern parable that Harold Kushner tells in his book, When All You’ve Ever Wanted Isn’t Enough. “I was sitting on a beach one summer day, watching two children, a boy and a girl, playing in the sand. They were […]
by David Anderson 3 Comments Filed Under: Awe, Beauty, Letting Go, Now/ the Present, Reality--trusting it
It was a small procedure, but even “minor” surgery requires general anesthesia, intubation, and signing a form that says if you die in there it’s not like they didn’t warn you. I walked into the OR in my johnny coat, an IV dripping in my arm, and there before me was a narrow operating table […]
by David Anderson 11 Comments Filed Under: Awareness, Grace, Healing, Mercy, Now/ the Present, Suffering, Surrender, Transformation, Uncategorized
Just a few days ago I got an $800 repair bill on our junker car (mice had made a nest in the air ducts and gotten caught in the blower fan, yuck). That was just after the expert stood in my front lawn and told me I needed a new septic system. Money is one […]
by David Anderson 4 Comments Filed Under: Awareness, Faith/Trust, Happiness, Letting Go, Now/ the Present, Reality--trusting it, Surrender, Transformation
“There are people with cancer and people in prisons experiencing happinesseven under those conditions. So, why not you?” -Anthony DeMello No one likes cleaning toilets. It’s the kind of chore that, if we’re able, we get other people to do. That’s the remarkable force behind the new movie, “Perfect Days,” where we meet Hirayama, who […]
by David Anderson 16 Comments Filed Under: Awareness, Beauty, Daily Practice, Freedom, Happiness, Letting Go, Now/ the Present, Reality--trusting it, Service, Surrender, work
The shortest distance between two points is usually the most boring. The fastest way of doing something is often the most mindless. Every day we have these to-do lists. Into every 24 hours we stuff 48. When we still can’t get it all done, we hire a coach who can make us even more efficient […]
by David Anderson 23 Comments Filed Under: Awareness, Awe, Daily Practice, Happiness, Now/ the Present, Seeing
“If you died tonight, where would you spend eternity?” I heard that over and over in the church of my childhood and youth. It was a stock ending to an evangelistic sermon aimed at getting people saved. I grew up in South Dakota, but if you went to a Baptist church in Wisconsin or Washington, […]
by David Anderson 12 Comments Filed Under: Adult Spirituality, Belief, Conversion, Daily Practice, Death/Dying, Faith/Trust, Letting Go, Now/ the Present, Prayer/Meditation, Salvation
may remind you of yourself. She’s who you were when losing five dollars was a big deal. “Suppose a woman has ten silver coins,” Jesus says, “and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors […]
by David Anderson 4 Comments Filed Under: Abundance, Blessing, Happiness, Lent, Money, Now/ the Present
teaches us how to access and trust the God within. Jesus tells a parable about a vulnerable widow who goes before a jerk of a judge who “neither feared God nor cared what people thought ” (Luke 18:1-8). He brushes her off, again and again. But she keeps after him, until finally he relents and […]
by David Anderson 6 Comments Filed Under: Adult Spirituality, authority, Awareness, Faith in Action, Grace, Lent, Now/ the Present, Patience, Surrender, Transformation