A brief meditation for Lent—three times a week. Want to receive an email notification each time David posts?
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Praying at 2:30 in the Morning
When you ask people, “Where have you experienced the presence of God in some powerful way?” they almost never mention the church. Even though I lead a church, that answer never bothers me. It’s true for me too. My most transporting experiences are always either in nature or in a close personal encounter with another human […]
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What Will You Be for Halloween?
The most transforming costume I ever wore was not on Halloween. I auditioned and was chosen to play the “Father” in a neighborhood production of “Hansel and Gretel.” After dying my blonde hair brown, they painted enormous mutton-chops on my cheeks and gave me a thick brown mustache. I looked in the mirror and saw […]
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Put Sunlight On Your List
We live by lists. I’ve got lists on my Blackberry calendar. I’ve got little pieces of paper in my shirt pocket that say, “Call Dr.” and “Stop paper/mail” and “Dan.” When I get to work my wonderful, life-saving admin kindly forces me to clean up the clutter on my desk. Then Judy types up a nice […]
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No, Thank You
I want to live in a world without thank-you cards. I send them. I receive them (and notice, with furrowed brow, when I do not). I realize how important it is to say “thank you.” I learned that when I was two. I taught my girls to say the “magic words” whenever anyone proffered a […]
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The Stethoscope
The essence of spiritual life is often presented as a matter of seeing. The root problem is blindness. We have no “eye of the heart” and therefore we cannot see spiritually. It’s not just that we cannot “see” spiritual truths—that the external world is passing away, that only love endures; that the last shall be […]
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October Grass
This morning they mowed the grass on the church lawn. I was surprised to hear the whirr and moan of the mower. Fall has come, the leaves are flaming and drifting. I half imagined that everyone had stowed their mowers and readied their rakes. Not yet. The sound of the mowers registered in my head, […]
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Do One Small Thing
Statistics can paralyze. Of the world’s 6.8 billion people, 925 million don’t have enough to eat. That’s more than the population of the U.S., Canada and the European Union all put together. Global food prices are rising sharply—because of population increase, rising oil prices and climate change. The world’s poorest spend 80% of their income […]
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Prison Envy
I grew up in farm country South Dakota, where I heard a lot of Johnny Cash. I loved his voice. It sounded like a rusted muffler, but it moved me. So I’ve listened with interest and pleasure to Johnny’s daughter, singer, song-writer Rosanne Cash who’s earned her own place in American music. When someone offered […]
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The Sick Cat Syndrome
I have a sick cat this morning. I sensed it last night. Usually about dinner time both cats start circling the kitchen and yowing. That’s when we give them their canned food treat, and they never let us forget that chow time for us is treat time for them. But not last night. Neither one […]