Acquiring a Quiet Soul

My heart is not proud, O Lord, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me. O Israel, put your hope …

Friends

In my wilderness, as in the Hebrew Exodus, manna appeared in the morning, a pillar of cloud rose up to shade me in the sweltering afternoon desert sun, and a pillar of fire warmed me and lighted my way through the darkness of night. Literally “manna” means, “What is this?” The first manna recipients wondered …

Recovering from Preacher Talk

By “Preacher Talk,” I’m not talking about pronouncing “God” like it’s spelled “Gaaaawwwd,” or about that practice of adding an extra breath-syllable to the end of each phrase: “God is good–huh! His Word is true–huh! Let’s do his will–huh!” Then there’s that certain preacherly tone that sounds like no one ever talks in real life. …

“Jobian”…

[Another random selection from the memoir I'm finishing up...] We ignore the ambiguity that accompanies our finitude, and thus we claim to know what we can't know. We reduce the unfathomable complexity of the cosmos to the capacity of our finite minds. When we do this, we invariably end up blaming God or indicting victims. …

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