This week the news has once again turned our attention toward the Middle East, as tensions with Iran continue to escalate and the threat of a wider regional war grows more real. For many of us, these headlines stir both concern for the present and memories of conflicts past. I remember the first Gulf War […]
Dear Faith Family, One of the gifts of being back in Kansas is the sky. There is something about a prairie sunset, the horizon set ablaze in orange, red, and purple, that invites us to pause and look up. Creation has a way of preaching, if we are paying attention. This week offered an added […]
Dear Beloved — made from stardust, On Ash Wednesday morning I had the privilege of marking foreheads with ashes at the church coffee bar — preschool teachers hurrying between classrooms, parents wrangling children, members stopping on their way to work. One by one I traced the cross and spoke the ancient words: “You are a […]
Persistent Resistance Matthew 17:1-9, Ephesians 6:10-20 Think for a moment about a mountaintop experience in your own life. Maybe it really was on a mountain, standing at the summit after a long climb, the air thinner and the horizon wider than you imagined. Or maybe it was not a mountain at all. Maybe it was […]
Dear Beloved, Each February, Valentine’s Day invites us to pause and think about love. We see it in cards exchanged, notes written, candy shared, and small gestures of affection offered to one another. Beneath those familiar traditions is a deeper question worth asking: where did Valentine’s Day come from, and what does it have to […]
