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When Eye Sees God
Previously on… During my first semester of college, I went through a deep depression. I was in a great deal of emotional pain and guilt, blaming myself and hating myself so much, that it seemed like the only way out was suicide. I was scared to keep on living. But I was also scared to…
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Rethinking the Light that Saved Me
I was recently interviewed by Sean Wellington for his podcast Suicide Noted. See this blog post for my thoughts about the podcast in general. The episode with my interview has not dropped yet, and I’ll certainly post about it when it does. But I can’t wait until then to start talking about something that happened…
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…Waters that Endure
You’ll need to read yesterday’s post, “Storms that Threaten…” in order to get the context for this. I sat on a bench in Nescopeck Community Park, looking out over the Susquehanna River. I had spent the last hour walked around town, remembering all kinds of things. I recognized houses where members of the church I…
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Storms that Threaten…
This post is something of a part four in a series of Revisiting Waters from my past. You can read the first few parts here: In each of these posts, I shared a story of going to a place I used to live, and sitting by water there, remembering and learning. Here in Part Four…
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On being remembered
A few days ago, I was at a Zoom meeting with other pastors in my synod. As part of the opening devotion, the meeting facilitator asked the question, “How do you want to be remembered?” Many people gave answers like, “I want to be remembered as someone who loved God and did my best.” Or,…
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Searching for a Long-Lost Friend
A few months ago, I had a dream that led me down a very interesting path. I became mildly obsessed with searching online for information on a person I hadn’t seen in well over forty years. Let me explain. I’m going to change some names, for the sake of privacy. In order to explain this…
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The 4th Quaker Question
Last week, I wrote a post about a recent event I attended with about six or seven other church leaders. While there, we were invited to answer the “Four Quaker Questions” together. I wrote about the first three questions in that post. If you didn’t read it, feel free to go there now. Don’t worry…
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Answering the Quaker Questions
I was recently at a meeting where the leader led us in something called the “Four Quaker Questions.” A little bit of googling has led me to believe that these questions are widely used as icebreakers in religious groups, but that they have no connection whatsoever to the Society of Friends (aka the Quakers). That’s…
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Who Says Everything is Meaningless?
When I was a freshman in college, I lived in the “freshman dorm.” Some of you might remember such things. A whole pile of 18- and 19-year-olds, just out of their nests, filled with hormones and alcohol. I remember standing outside on several frigid nights, waiting for the fire alarm to be reset after someone…
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Cat-Sized Hole
I buried a cat yesterday. It was a very difficult process. I don’t mean emotionally — although I’ll get to that part soon enough. I mean physically difficult. The house where I live is adjacent to several acres of woods, and there is an abundance of spots in the woods to lay the body of…
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