You need imagination in order to imagine a future that doesn’t exist.” ~Azar Nafisi The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus call us to imagine the unimaginable. Between Good Friday and Easter Sunday Jesus enters the darkness. Then, darkness is reimagined as a place of hope reborn. It is a holy darkness, a place without…
“Blessed are hearts that can bend; they shall never be broken.” ~ Albert Camus This Sunday we are going to Jerusalem. There, in Jerusalem, we will enter a love story. It is a love story from the heart of Jesus. As told in Matthew’s gospel, the path to Jerusalem begins with the proclamation of John…
Sometimes our heads are groggy from the muddle of overload. Other times our heads spin with multiple conversations going on all at once. Be it brain fog or brain spin, it is easy to think and act impulsively, without deeper consideration. Motives can quickly become confused. Old ways of thinking can easily become our dominant…
“What happens when people open their hearts in prayer? They get better.” ~ Haruki Murakami, alt. Many of my pastoral conversations center on prayer. Is there really power in prayer? We pray for wholeness of body, mind and spirit. We also pray for our broken world, including prayers for peace to calm the dangerous escalation…
“Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path.” ~Psalm 119:105 I recall a time when I was struggling for the right word. As a counselor for a summer youth camp I was given charge of over a dozen 8-10 year olds. They were a rambunctious test of patience and…
“Deep breathing brings deep thinking and shallow breathing shallow thinking.” ~Elsie Lincoln Benedict When’s the last time you had room to breathe? At MCCDC this Sunday at 9 AM and 11 AM we will invite you to take a breath. And another. To breathe is to pray, especially when words fall flat, seem empty, or…
It is with purpose that we enter the 40 days of Lent. Lent is a season of questions. We may ask ourselves: Do I know my purpose? Has it changed? Is it changing? How am I called to live for the rest of my life? We may ask God: What is the next step? How…
“If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we aren’t really living.” ~Gail Sheehy Last night at MCCDC Bible Study, Elaine Durden-Hunter facilitated a powerful Bible Study. The topic of change came up: how changing our lives for good is difficult, often requiring more patience than we think we have. Yet when…
“One way to love your enemies is to love yourself. When you fully love yourself you are protected by your own love grounded in God’s love, transforming the threat of enemies.” ~Rev. Elder Dwayne Johnson Jesus doesn’t mince words: “Love your enemies” (Luke 6:27). The plain speaking Jesus of Luke’s Gospel continues his Great Sermon…
“When we continue to compartmentalize our lives, we diminish our capacity to learn, grow, be healthy, and have a fully dynamic relationship with God. As human beings, we are so complex and integrally connected that any time something goes askew in one part of our system, the other parts cannot help but be affected.” ~Doreen…