Finding Your Soul by David Anderson
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When Pentecost gets Personal
The ancient Pentecost hymn is Veni Creator Spiritus. “Come Creator Spirit.” We invoke, we implore the Spirit to fall upon us because without her we are lifeless—like Ezekiel’s dry bones. This is the spirit who brooded over the face of the deep, Genesis tells us, and brought forth from the primal elements the whole cosmos.…
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The Real Mother’s Day
What if Mother’s Day was originally a revolutionary movement? What if the second Sunday in May every year wasn’t just about your kids and your family? I always figured Mother’s Day was the creation of Hallmark. Then my friend Jen sent me the link I’ve included just below. I was surprised–and uplifted!–to discover that the…
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Finding Water in Cuba
A few days ago I drank water from a spigot in Itabo, Cuba. It was the water of life. I don’t know why this is, but almost always we must go to the desert to find water. Of course no one “goes to the desert to find water.” We find ourselves in desert spots,…
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Stretch Out Your Hands
Today I changed my father’s diaper. He is mostly helpless, half paralyzed from a stroke and, at 97, weakened. Congestive heart failure and dangerously low blood pressure had already sidelined my father. Now he cannot swallow and must be fed through a peg in his stomach. He has lost 30 pounds. Every bone showing, he…
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Love that Will Not Let Go
Palm Sunday. This day is an on-ramp for a kind of sanctified chaos. In one moment we hit glory and plummet in the next to tragedy. Our mouths fill with the richness of that final meal-before-the gallows, then our tongues dry and the pits of our stomachs sour in the fast. If suffering is simply…
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Forgiving…To Save Our Own Lives
Jesus’ story of the Prodigal Son brings us into the presence of absolute forgiveness. We toss around the idea of “unconditional love” as if it were not a dangerous thing. We love the notion of forgiveness…but only to a point. After all, there is finally a right and a wrong. Jesus’ story of forgiveness is…
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The Kindness Mandate
Be kind. Everyone you meet is carrying a heavy burden. -Ian MacLaren Today I met a woman with a story that stung. Her daughter gave birth to her first grandchild, a beautiful boy. Sheer joy. But immediately the problems started. The little boy could not suck or swallow. After days of tests and anguish, during…
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The Prophet in Solitary
What if you were locked up for twenty-seven years? I am listening to the radio, and a man is talking about his advocacy for prisoners in solitary confinement. He receives, he says, fifty letters a day from men in solitary. He reads from several letters. The one that has my jaw hanging slack comes from…
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When the Game Breaks Down
We often speak about life as a game. If we’re going to succeed or “win,” we have to have determination, zeal, a willingness to fight and prevail against all comers. But tucked into the corners of that metaphor is also the sense that human life in society is governed by artificial rules or expectations—the kind…