I appreciated Carolyn May and Phil Hart’s exploration of darkness imagery last week, and it reminded me of Joel’s sermon (a while ago!) that interwove the song “Joyful is the Dark.” In screening thousands of songs for Voices Together, I have become all the more aware of how some biblical…

A mentor once told me, “Brent, when you decide to change yourself for the better and really bear down, the universe will test you. When you decide to take control, the universe is going to give you all sorts of…*STUFF*… before it gives you any shinola.” When I started writing…

“What is this place, where we are meeting?” A monitor screen, covered with a patchwork of squares, filled with the faces of people A community, a family, “a body that lives” even though we are gathered virtually. We affirm that the God that is here with me is also there…

On November 3rd, I served as an election poll worker.  I hadn’t worked at the polls before then, but ever since I became eligible to vote some decades ago, I’ve voted in every general election and most primaries.  I believe in the democratic election process.  It has always given me…

A couple days ago Abbie and I were scrolling our New York Times app and came across THIS interview with Mo Willems.  He’s a children’s book author and illustrator.  Elephant and Piggie, and the stubborn Pigeon were frequent members of our library check out list. Willems says his key insight…