Category: Luke
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Even Now, There is Light
I don’t know about you, but there are days when it feels like the world has turned the dimmer switch down just a little too far. You wake up, scroll through the news, and before your coffee has even kicked in, you are thinking, “Well, that is not encouraging.” We are at war. Our nation…
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Where Unity Begins
In a time when it feels like almost everything is contested, one of the deepest longings I hear from people is simple and heartfelt: a desire for unity. We want our community to be a place where neighbors trust one another, where differences do not immediately turn into divisions, and where people feel safe, seen,…
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The Real Miracle of Christmas
Every year, as Christmas approaches, I’m convinced that there is an unspoken competition that happens all around us. It is the annual contest to see who can be the nicest version of themselves, at least for a few days. You see it everywhere. Suddenly, people start letting each other merge in traffic. Someone actually returns the shopping cart…
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Hope Refines
The season of Advent often feels like you’re standing just at the edge of dawn. Have you ever been up in the morning for a sunrise? Then you know exactly what I’m talking about: The sky is still dim. The world is quiet. Yet there is just enough light on the horizon to tell you that morning…
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Christmas is a Time of Welcome (Not Fear)
This time of year always draws me back to the heart of the Christmas story. It is a story full of angels and shepherds and songs of peace, but at its core it is about a young family on the move. Mary and Joseph were traveling because they had to. They were vulnerable. They were…
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For All the Saints
Jerry Buegler. Elmer Buegler. Gertrude Buegler. Grace Moody. Elliott Moody. Lyle Tjosaas. Carol Tjosaas. Phillip Moody. Charles Moody. Jim Campbell. Kimberly Devine-Johnson. Tom Hunstad. Matthias Meester. Robert Roubik. These are my names. The names of people, precious to me, who over the years I have lost. These are my names. You have your names. Your own list of people that you have known and loved, and who have died in faith. When…
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The Generous Life
226 years ago, in the year 1799, a twelve-year-old boy named Conrad Reed, skipped Sunday School to go fishing. He found a place to fish along Little Meadow Creek on his family’s farm in North Carolina. While standing by the creek, young Conrad saw what he thought was a “yellow rock shining in the water.”…
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Free to Love
Have you ever noticed that there are rules in life that seem like they were designed just to drive you crazy? Maybe it’s a traffic law…maybe some policy at your work…or perhaps it’s a social expectation. There are rules and laws that don’t make a lot of sense to us. For instance: Rules and laws. Some of…
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Turn Your Face
A farmer was teaching his young son how to plow. As his son sat in the tractor seat, his dad pointed to the far end of the field. “Now, son,” he said, “What you have to do is keep you eyes on one point at the far end of the field. Just focus on that one thing and…
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Erase the Lines
Have you ever had one of those days when you didn’t feel like you belong? Maybe you’re somewhere new…somewhere different…and you’re not confident you’re going to fit in? When I was a college student, there was a woman I dated during my junior year. (This was, of course, before I’d been swept off my feet by…