Our precious grandchild Josie taught me all kinds of things as I was with her these two weeks: “Give thanks when getting cleaned up in life!” (She calms down as if to say just that. Sometimes I have less gratitude.) “Let others help you!” (Right- no choice at her age, but she receives. Do i?…
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Rudderless
What brings meaning, identity, value to your life? Sometimes the true answer sneaks up on you. For two weeks I am grandpa-in-residence with my daughter, Anna, son-in-law, Zack, and their new precious daughter, Josephine Kate or Josie, as we call her. I fell head-over-heels in love the first time I met her. She has…
Spotlight
Grace is our 28-year-old daughter. She is beautiful, dynamic, fun – spirited, a rich blessing! She and I scheduled a night out to a movie and after a great walk through Portland together we arrived at the cinema. We’d arrived just in time to see “Spotlight” — a movie on our list. Spotlight is the…
Easter Sunday
This image of our youngest’s jump into Crater Lake seems like a fitting one for Easter — a day when freedom and joy came to humanity! Holy Week is one of my favorite weeks all year long. With nightly services from contemplative to interactive, around table fellowship and in silence, culminating with Easter Sunday the…
Prepare the Way
Part of the journey of this year is preparation — not only the actual preparation of buying supplies, coordinating events and speakers, and planning the budget– but more so, and perhaps in a larger sense, the preparation is of the heart, of my own heart, and of the heart of the congregation as I am…
The Camino Year (republished from 9/2015)
Beginning in August 2014, the Church Council worked with me on applying for a National Clergy Renewal Grant from the Lily Endowment. I was stunned and overjoyed to learn in August 2015 that we are to be the recipient of one of the grants. The question I answered for the grant proposal was what would…
I Am With You
Whatever this year may bring us, I have this undergirding confidence in the character, purpose and goodness of God. One event that strengthened this for me, was one that took place on a hot June night in 1995. The phone call came after midnight into the dark dorm room on the campus of Willamette University…
Let Me Work
On Tuesday evenings a couple times a month a small group and I meet together as I am teaching them the process of learning and telling stories. The weekly assignment is to tell someone the story, or one of the stories, we have learned over the time we have been together. Attendance varies but basically…
Zack
Karen, my wife, got to be with our oldest daughter for the birth of her first child, our third grandchild, a little girl in Salt Lake City this week. Such excitement there and such joy as Josephine Kate arrived to touch our lives. While gone Karen’s dog, Zack, who usually travels with her when here,…
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