I've been thinking a lot lately about prayer, the bringing to God of our deep desires. You've got to be willing to hold them loose and let them go. I suspect Dietrich Bonhoeffer would give an earful to anyone who claims God is in the wish-fulfillment business. A Christian life is the life of the... Continue Reading →
Dreamer or Pragmatist, Part II
I have been thinking a lot lately about goals. There's been an empire of self-help books built on Specific Measurable Attainable Realistic Timely goals, goals that get results. Michael Hyatt, in his recent book Platform, devotes a good deal of time to the subject, giving helpful examples like: "Make one hundred thousand dollars a year... Continue Reading →
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Dreamer or pragmatist? Part I
I have been thinking a lot lately about desire, the deeply rooted longings that define our unique identities. John Eldredge writes, "We are desire. It is the essence of the human soul, the secret of our existence. Absolutely nothing of human greatness is ever accomplished without it. Not a symphony has been written, a mountain... Continue Reading →
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A little birdwatching
We stood at the top of the hill, at the particular bend in the road where we always turned around, pivoted in the mud, and stood rooted in it, our boots sinking in with stubbornness: here is where we will stay. The sun was setting in a rush; already the shadows rose up from the... Continue Reading →
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sabbatical 1645, "of or suitable for the Sabbath," from L. sabbaticus, from Gk. sabbatikos "of the Sabbath" (see Sabbath). Meaning "a year's absence granted to researchers" (originally one year in seven, to university professors) first recorded 1886 (the thing itself is attested from1880, at Harvard), related to sabbatical year (1599) in Mosaic law, the seventh... Continue Reading →
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I didn’t sign up for this.
When we started walking, the sun was out, the day was blue and gold and green, hopeful. By the time we started back, the sky was dark, heavy with rain, which fell at an astonishing rate -- 2 billion drops per second square, or thereabouts -- and soaked us through. That was not the plan!... Continue Reading →
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Joyful January
January 2 ought to be known as Anticlimax Day. The turkey is getting a little... ripe, the lights are coming down, the New Year's Resolutions have already been broken, the batteries in the new toys have died. The parties are over, the eggnog's run out, the radio is playing the same old songs from October... Continue Reading →
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Homesick
“No one has yet believed in God and the kingdom of God, no one has yet heard about the realm of the resurrected, and not been homesick from that hour, waiting and looking forward joyfully to being released from bodily existence.” ― Dietrich Bonhoeffer Well, I wrote a few days ago about the end of... Continue Reading →
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Best Christmas Pageant (Tea) Ever
So tomorrow is the Christmas Tea, our church's annual ladies' event. Guess who's speaking? Tonight we set things up, the miles of garland, enough lights to reach from Colorado to California, plates enough to stack to the moon, all things glittering, all things white, all things shiny. We worked, and worked, and all the while... Continue Reading →
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10,000 Ways That Won’t Work
Thomas Edison is known to have said, “I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.” 10,000? Here are a few. 1. Whining doesn't work. Just makes yucky things take longer. 2. Being crabby. Ditto. 3. Being prideful. Love falling on my face, but perchance a little humility goes a long way?... Continue Reading →
Catherine's Letters 