Written by the Story

The past few days, I have kept running into the idea of living one day at a time. It's come up enough in different things I've read, that I take notice. I'm still one of those "pre-moderns" who thinks that there's an unseen reality, that God speaks to us if we listen. So when the same idea keeps showing up, I feel like I should take notice. One story that stood out to me was about a woman who, in the course of a very short span of time lost one of her twin babies at birth, found out that the other would have permanent hearing loss, lost her father in a car accident that also permanently injured her mother. The car accident resulted in her having to oversee the selling of her father's business, and help her mom through a criminal investigation against the drunk driver who hit her parents. All while dealing with the loss of one baby, the loss of her father, and navigating life with a new baby who could not hear her mother's voice. Merely one of these thi...

  Dear Good Shepherd and friends, You are made in the image of God. You can't really improve on that. Yet, we try and try and try to make ourselves into something, as if being made in the image of God were not good enough. The wisdom teacher who wrote the book called Ecclesiastes called it "chasing after the wind." All our human striving is like trying to capture the wind or grasp a puff of smoke. It's not that he thinks our human pursuits are pointless. He thinks that chasing after things  in the effort to make our identity, to find meaning in life through acquiring and achieving , is a waste of time. None of it makes us who we are, none of it can improve on the claim that you and I are made in the image of God. And so also is the person you might see if you look up right now. At the end of the day, you and the person you see are absolutely no different. We're just really gullible at believing the differences based on the identities we have created. The reality i...

  Every year, it is Easter Sunday that gets the focus. Before Holy Week even hits, churches advertise Easter services, looking ahead to the big event. And I understand it (sort of)...churches need to do it in our triumphant culture. We want to celebrate the triumph and the "victory," the hero who overcomes.  I fear we're missing the point.  The actual stories of the gospels have a curious difference in perspective. The gospels spend much less time on the resurrection than they do on the crucifixion. It makes me wonder if we have put the emphasis on the wrong syllable. I mean, if we want to get the story right, shouldn't we follow the script a little more closely? Combined, the gospels spend a total of eight chapters on the trial and crucifixion accounts, and less than half of that amount on the resurrection (Mark gets a mere eight verses).  And the focus on the crucifixion is not limited to the stories of Jesus' trial and death. Leading up to his death, Jesus spea...

  "Kiss my ring. Bow at my feet. Wash my feet. Make sure you serve and honor me the way that I deserve." All things nearly every king, ruler, and person in power has said throughout human history. All things the gods and goddesses of the religious marketplace of the ancient world demanded. All things Jesus never said. During Jesus' last night, he revealed in startling ways what he had been all about from day one. As God's presence on earth: He was born in obscurity and poverty in a garage filled with animals, the living "tools" of a pre-tech age. He never made it his mission to make his way out and climb to the top of the social ladder. Jesus is not a poster God for the American dream. He lived among the struggling and the sick; among the sinners and the overworked. He didn't come to lend a hand from a higher, safer position. He lived among the ones he came to save. He was no different in his life than they. He tended to the needs of the forgotten with h...

  Jesus' last week of his life in first-century, Roman occupied Jerusalem was not a good one.  Jesus met with scandal, pressure from opponents, misunderstanding, a hasty nighttime trial, beating, humiliation, and a grueling death. He was among friends who misunderstood him, and worse, some of his closest friends turned on him.  Peter denied knowing Jesus. Judas betrayed him. In the gospel of Luke, the two events happen side-by-side, first Judas, then Peter.  Judas pretends closeness with Jesus, greeting him with a kiss. Peter stays at a distance, unsure of whether he wants to be associated with Jesus or not. Some people think Judas' offense was worse. He handed Jesus over to be crucified. Well, Peter played the coward. Judas, it seems, misunderstood Jesus and made a poor judgment call that merely helped out events that were already in motion. Peter simply cowered out of selfish fear. However you evaluate their actions, they both turned their backs on and abandoned t...

  During Jesus' final days in all of the gospels, he warns his disciples about earthly political and physical turmoil.  "You will hear of wars and rumors of wars...nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom..." (Matthew 24:6-7 / Mark 13:7-8) "...there will be earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues (pandemics)...." (Luke 21:11) This is interesting because most earthly kings in Jesus' context were pronounced "king" and given the mantle of authority because  they had brought political and national peace. They conquered. They brought war to an end. Wars and conflict were no longer something to fear, at least for the ruling kingdom. And if they truly were appointed by God's authority, then the God/Gods would honor them and not allow things like earthquakes, storms, famines, or sickly plagues.  If the ruler couldn't secure peace politically and nationally, then they weren't worthy of the title or the job. If ...

  During Jesus’ last week, several things unfold that the gospel writers use to illustrate significant things about Jesus and what he was about. One of these is the anointing of Jesus. You can read it in Matthew 26:6-13 . The story goes that Jesus was at a dinner party, enjoying company of his friends and others. Sometime during the course of the meal a woman shows up and pours a jar of expensive perfume oil on Jesus’ head.  It’s a slightly strange scene if you’re not familiar with the context. First of all, pouring oil on one's head wasn’t all that strange in the first century. Using oil on one’s head was a thing of hygiene or cleanliness. There wasn’t the convenience of showering daily with a nice botanical shampoo. Oil was the way to keep clean and fresh. Now, especially in the Jewish community, pouring oil on someone’s head was a reminder of the anointing of kings and priests – significant leaders appointed by God. This is what Matthew has in mind. This isn’t just ...

  I find it interesting about our human minds that good weather tends to make many of us feel good, energized, and happier, while rainy weather (usually for more than one day) can steal the energy and feeling of happiness. Now, I recognize this is not the case for everyone, but it is a general trend among people. At the most basic, this just goes to show that our moods and feelings, even our energy levels and sense of purpose, often depend on circumstances. This varies from individual to individual, but I suspect something deeper is going on as well. Maybe this is because much of the cultural mentality of our modern world has lost a sense of transcendence and wonder. Our modern cultural mindset is one that generally sees this world as a mechanistic place to be controlled and mastered to fit our lives. We have lost what some sociologists and psychologists refer to as "enchantment" (on more of that, click here ). This world has become a pretty boring, closed system. And because...

  Dear Good Shepherd and friends, Let me begin with a statement that I've thought for years now, but am always a bit timid to confess. I just don't want to step on toes. But, here it is: too often our theologies and our ideas of God are too neat and too comfortable.   Our natural human desire is for order and structure in life. We want life to make sense. We want our existence and this world to operate according to understandable and predictable laws. We want some degree of certainty that we are not at the mercy of randomness. Yet, at the same time, if we believe modern science, it tells us that our world and our existence is the result of a random occurrence. Things happened to shuffle together in just the right ways to result in the possibility of our existence. And it seems that most of our lives play out the ongoing trajectory of randomness. Yet, and ironically, we are always trying to provide some order and predictability to what we've deemed is random. We apply scient...

Dear Good Shepherd and friends, In a previous life, my wife and I watched a movie called Memento (2000). Here's the storyline: the movie is about the life of this individual named Leonard who suffers from an acute form of amnesia where his brain cannot store short-term memories. Throughout the movie, Leonard has to create ways to constantly remind himself of what he is doing, and who people around him are. Every moment is like a new "present" moment, because Leonard can't recall what just happened. Even though he knows his own name, and for the most part remembers his identity, he is always in a state of forgetting what's going on around him. Because he can't recall the past, he struggles to move forward.  So to get on in life, Leonard would take polaroid pictures of nearly everything important to remember what he is doing, where he is going. As he would return home or to his car, the pictures served as a reminder of people in his life, of what he's suppos...

Dear Good Shepherd and friends, So, I've been having knee problems lately. It's been troubling enough that I've begun to see a physical therapist.  The knee problem is the result of several things. I had knee surgery nearly 25 years ago as a sophomore in college. I still continue to run regularly, and have for quite a while. Most recently, I've been crawling around on my knees doing some work in our attic.  The knee problem isn't new. It has to do with things I've done or am doing, just as a matter of course in life, and the trauma of the knee surgery. One does not have knee surgery (or surgery of any sort) and expect that there will never again be issues. The knee is forever in a weakened state. The PT prescribed for me a list of exercises: stability squats, bridges, this "clamshell" exercise I have to do with an exercise band, straight-leg lifts while lying on my back on the floor. None of these are particularly impressive exercises. They take time e...

Dear Good Shepherd and friends, What comes to your mind when you think of God? Go ahead, ponder it for a second. I'll wait... Ok. Since we can't really talk, I'll guess at what might have come into some of your minds. Maybe some of you might have initially thought, "Hmmm. I don't really think about God much. I have no idea what I think."  Maybe some of you didn't think about God first, but you thought about your church experience. You might have thought of Sunday school images of an old white man, not really grandfather-like, but more like some version of a strong, powerful-looking man in about his 60s with whiteish hair and a long flowing beard.  Or maybe you thought of church but did not have a physical picture that came to mind, but rather ideas. Maybe your church experience put in your minds ideas of a loving God. Or maybe your church experience talked about a loving God, but in reality made God seem like some strict rule-keeping parent who won't j...