My Lenten devotional for St. Mark, published today:


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Erasing Our History

Image
There’s a lot of talk about "erasing our history.”  Just the evening before last, on the eve of Juneteenth, a monument commemorating the "Lost Cause" of the Civil War was lawfully removed from the Historic DeKalb County Courthouse. This is one of many monuments being removed, whether lawfully or unlawfully, in the wake of the killing of George Floyd and the resulting protests.  The Historic DeKalb County Courthouse, minus its 1908 monument to the Confederacy My  Great Great Grandfather Wrenn, My Great Great Grandfather Paschall, and my Great Great Great Grandfather Strickland all fought for the Confederacy. Great Great Grandpa Wrenn enlisted at the age of 21 in May, 1861. “Grandpa Bob” Paschall was wounded and was a prisoner of war. Grandpa Strickland was wounded at Fredericksburg, a wound that required a few weeks of convalescence. He was also captured, but exchanged and returned to duty. He soldiered on until the surrender at Appomattox Court Hous
Read more

The Heavens Declare the Glory of God

Image
Psalms 19:1  “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.” The other morning, I went on a walk before starting my work for the day. It was a gorgeous morning, a bit cooler than it had been, yet sunny.  I came back in and was making a cup of coffee in my kitchen when I heard my balcony door fly open. Surprised, I went to the living room to see the door wide open, rain falling, and a gorgeous rainbow straddling the Atlanta downtown skyline. It was as if the Lord said, “Come quickly. See what I have to offer you.” These can be hard days. We mourn the loss of our sense of normalcy, the familiar daily connections that have been interrupted. We confess that we struggle in fear of an uncertain future in these strange times, a season of unknowing and doubt. We ask your forgiveness, O Lord, when we fail to put our faith in you, when we fail to see the good that is still around us, when we fail to acknowledge You and delight in Your presence. I thank
Read more

May God Bless Us With Discomfort

Image
These recent weeks have been trying. The world seems upside-down, businesses are closed, and people are losing their jobs. Families and friends are unable to mourn together in times of loss. We watch daily as the death toll rises. It can all be very unsettling. But sometimes, perhaps we need to be unsettled. Can we use this as an opportunity to look at our lives and ask “Where are set in our ways,”   Particularly, where are we set in ways that aren’t healthy for us as a society, that aren’t in line with what Jesus calls us to do?   What lessons can we learn from this that we want to bring forward into our new lives, after all of this is a thing of the past? The other day on my evening walk I passed a closed storefront that had painted messages in its windows. One said “Comfort the Disturbed. Disturb the Comfortable.” A few days later, on a sidewalk someone had spray painted the message “With discomfort comes growth.” Maybe this is what Jesus is getting at when he says, “Bl
Read more