Embodied Existence

Last week, I took a few days away from my normal life and found myself eating my way through one of my favorite cities. While it was fun to have some space from the rhythms of parenting, cooking and housekeeping, the primary reason I was in Harrisonburg was to spend some in-person time with Gwen

Comfort: How Can This Be? (Reflection on Luke 1)

“Mary said to the angel, “How can this be?” -Luke 1:34  After the shepherds arrive and share with the new parents the angelic message they received, Mary ponders. It’s striking to me that her response is not rejoicing but reflection. She is beginning to understand the complexity of how can this be.  When Joseph and

Lent Reflection: Faith in the Modern World (Romans 4:17-18)

“Abraham was first named “father” and then became a father because he dared to trust God to do what only God could do: raise the dead to life, with a word make something out of nothing.  When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he

Wondering, Waiting, Wandering: Lent 2021

Ash Wednesday “is the most honest days of the church year,” writes pastor Liz Tichenor in her memoir The Night Lake. “When we come together and name that we’ve gone astray, name that we will die, name that now is the time to turn about together…” While this might not be the warmest of invitations,

Fall Reflection: God’s Protection (Exodus 33)

“And the LORD continued, “See, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock; and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by; then I will take away my hand, and