I was scrolling Facebook when I saw the post. Someone I had mentored. Someone who had reached out, who had sat in the specific loneliness of being queer and trans and faith-formed and told by that faith they were the…
How to Know If You’re Growing in Patience—or Just Giving Up
Whenever some terrible atrocity comes to light in the news cycle these days (in other words, about every 15 minutes), I hear the question “But what can we do?”
Learning from Trump’s unnatural impatience
Maybe Donald Trump is just a rich guy who is impatient and wants to get richer. He figured out that to get really rich, Musk-rich, you need to have political power, the more the better. Specifically, he must have reasoned,…
Flight delays and other thought-provoking interruptions
Whenever we travel, one person usually does the worrying about staying on schedule. This helpful, often misunderstood person is a compulsive clock-watcher. This has been a rough summer for people who still wear watches and for Delta, which canceled more…
A call from an old friend ended with disappointment but also a reminder of why I must love those who disagree with me
I just finished a call with an old friend of mine — “old” not in the sense of his age but in the sense that our active friendship grew dormant more than a quarter of a century ago. Space fails…
‘Give us this day our daily bread’: Lessons from the sourdough starter
By its sacred nature, bread is rich in symbolism. “I am the bread of life,” Jesus said. Made from the earth’s ingredients, this food represents bodily nourishment, hospitality and a spiritual relationship. “Breaking bread” originated when Jesus would break loaves…
Prayerful waiting can endure long lines, traffic jams and even Trump, minister says
Alaina Kleinbeck offers a very simple and practical solution for Americans yearning for a speedy end to the next presidential term — before it’s even begun. Just wait. Kleinbeck said she doesn’t mean the twiddling your thumbs or flipping through a…
How to welcome a new pastor to your church
When Beth McConnell was being introduced to our congregation as our new pastor, someone asked her what we could do to make her transition easier. Beth is too humble to give you this list. Over the decades, I have given…
Eva and the evening
With anticipatory excitement, we sat huddled at the end of the driveway – Eva, my husband Mark, and me. It was summer, it was near dark and we were sitting in fold-up metal and plastic-webbed chairs, almost in the street. …