by David Anderson
“Earth stood hard as iron,” the Christmas carol sings, “water like a stone.” That was winter. Now the spring rains have saturated the softened earth until it’s all a muddy muck. My boots are nearly sucked off my feet. It’s a clear, beautiful day for planting six new trees, but everything is sludge. I can […]
by David Anderson 9 Comments Filed Under: Awe, Beauty, Fear, Mystery, Nature/Creation, Reality--trusting it, Surrender
On this Good Friday, here is a poem and a song. A PRAYER TO THE GOD WHO FELL FROM HEAVEN by John Shea 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 says you criedand so […]
by David Anderson 4 Comments Filed Under: Grace, Lent, Love, Mercy, Suffering, Surrender
is, outside of Jesus, the most poignant and affecting character in the passion story. We meet other great figures this week, but none that stir such emotion in us. Peter the denier comes close, but no one drops completely into the abyss like Judas. His sin is considered unforgiveable. Would I have done that? we […]
by David Anderson 3 Comments Filed Under: Change, Conversion, Forgiveness, Lent, Mercy, Surrender
is a casualty of religious violence. You hardly know his name, but Malchus is the servant of the high priest, who comes along with Judas Iscariot and the Roman soldiers to arrest Jesus in the garden. He’s a bystander, really, until Peter, armed with a sword, decides he’s had enough of this non-violent resistance stuff. […]
by David Anderson 2 Comments Filed Under: Conflict, Healing, Lent, Power, Surrender, Transformation
On Saturdays our companions are musicians. Bob Dylan was on a grueling world tour in 1978, performing 114 shows in Japan, Australia, North America and all over Europe. He was traveling with an 8-piece band and three back-up singers. A lot to manage. All told, he sang to two million people. In the middle of […]
by David Anderson 8 Comments Filed Under: Conversion, Lent, Salvation, Surrender, Transformation, Uncategorized
is the queen of surrender. When the angel comes to her with the news, both impossible and outrageous, she says simply, “Let it be.” Let what is about to happen, happen. This isn’t passivity or indifference. It isn’t fatalistic. Not, “Well, it’s bound to happen, so there’s no sense fighting it.” It’s curious, wanting to […]
by David Anderson 7 Comments Filed Under: Faith/Trust, Lent, Letting Go, Listening, Reality--trusting it, Surrender, Transformation, Uncategorized, Vocation/ Calling
always knew where this life-in-God was taking him. But his Gethsemane night of agony reveals his deep confusion and misgiving: he didn’t think it would come to this. He falls on his face and prays mightily for God to find another way, sweating blood. Nevertheless, he prays, “not my will but yours be done.” Jesus […]
by David Anderson 8 Comments Filed Under: Belief, Faith/Trust, Lent, Letting Go, Surrender, Transformation, Uncategorized
is not like the puff adder, the snake who inflates himself to look bigger than he actually is. John gets smaller. John was a baptizer—that’s how he got his name, after all. And at the start he was quite popular. Baptism business was brisk. Until Jesus and his disciples began baptizing, and people started flocking […]
by David Anderson 5 Comments Filed Under: Lent, Letting Go, Power, Surrender, Transformation