Finding Your Soul by David Anderson
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Chop Wood
“Purity of heart is to will one thing.” -Soren Kierkegaard Winter is coming and I am splitting wood and stacking it in three sheds. Each log is slightly different. Some are straight and clean, some are gnarled with knots where the wood swirls and the clean grain is lost. Where to set the cleaver on…
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You Can Dance
The history of religion is basically a story of people trying to become holier than God. Last Saturday night I was dancing. It was a wedding—not some dance club for serious shimmiers, not dancing with any stars, just a wedding. But I was dancing, and that’s still a big deal for me. Because I didn’t…
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The Church of the Holy Laundromat
Laundromats are like no other place. They’re where you go, quite literally, to air your dirty laundry. In public. Chances are, it’s been a long time since you had to load up on quarters and visit one. When we had no washer for a time, Pam and I stuffed big canvas bags with clothes, sheets…
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The Back Door to Acceptance
Every spiritual truth is simple but difficult, plain but preposterous. In order to be first, all you have to do is be last (Matt. 20:16). Want to be strong? Simple. Just be weak (2 Cor. 12:10). How’d you like to be rich? You know what to do (Matt. 19:21). A few days ago I happened…
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Home By Another Way
There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered. -Nelson Mandela You can’t go home again, but we do anyway. In fact, it’s all we want to do. The old place exerts a powerful draw. The impulse to return home is driven by…
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Hunting Flies
Here is how I ended up hunting flies. Tuesday night we hosted a dinner party, and because it was a cool evening and people were constantly coming in and out of the house, the doors were essentially open all evening. By the time we closed up the place, flies were everywhere. We got the fly…
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What to Say to a Bear, Chasing You
If it’s fight-or-flight, I’m not much of a fighter. I mostly fly. So when I read these words by poet John Martin, I knew they were meant for me. See if they’re meant for you. Bear In Mind by John Martin A bear is chasing me through a meadowand I’m running as fast as I…
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Despite Our Best Efforts, the Holy Spirit Actually Comes
The Holy Spirit had a trick up her sleeve this morning—thankfully. I needed it. On the Feast of Pentecost I had slipped into my wonted pew for the 8:00 service, the early gathering I prefer precisely for its quiet and lack of crowds, and immediately I had the sense I often have at religious festivals.…
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A Counsel Against Self-Condemnation–From a Bird
I awake to a clatter at the back door. Erratic rapping on glass. I come down to investigate and find a scarlet cardinal sitting on the railing, then flying beak first into the all-glass door. A flutter and crash, regrouping on the railing, head cocking this way and that, then attacking the glass again, and…