Truth…truth is tricky business. In the 1950’s a college freshman went out for the track team. He did it to please his father, who had been a very good runner in his day, setting school records in the one-mile race. His son, the freshman, had never run competitively. This freshman’s very first race was one-on-one against the university’s … More The Truth Will Set You Free
Our community is built on trust. We trust that our neighbors are going to look out for us. We trust that when our light at the intersection turns green, the light for the cross-street will turn red. We trust that our educators have nothing but the best interest of our kids in mind. We trust … More Choose to Trust
Mark was a functioning alcoholic who I met when I was doing my student chaplaincy at a treatment center in the Twin Cities. A “functioning alcoholic” is someone who is addicted to alcohol, but is able to maintain, at least for awhile, their jobs, their families and their lives. Their addiction often does great damage in these … More The God who Waits
In my younger days, I would take youth groups out on cross-country trips to build homes with Habitat for Humanity. On the night before we left, we would always gather with families for a short worship service. And at that worship, we would give every young person who was going a small cross, on a leather lanyard. … More To Tell the Truth
Have you ever been a witness? I mean a real, live, actual legal witness? Like in a courtroom? I have. Years ago, I was on a church summer trip with a bunch of the young people from my congregation when they witnessed a crime. They did the right thing, and reported it, and the individual … More No Filter
Do you remember the first time you felt really, really trusted? The first time that someone entrusted you with an important responsibility, or a task? I remember when I was young, probably just in jr. high, and my parents and my brothers had to go out of town for something, and they left me completely … More Well Done
When the decade of the 1960s came to an end, many of the hippies who had lived in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district were forced by rising real estate costs to moved down the coast to the town of Santa Cruz. There, they married and had children, they bought cars and homes and they enrolled their … More Truth has a Name
“Faith is moving forward.” “God has a plan for us.” “Let’s go.” Now, these words are from a drama. They are not actually found in the scriptures. The truth is, we wonder, but we don’t know exactly what Mary and Joseph talked about on that journey to Bethlehem. But there had to be some anxiety…apprehension…maybe … More Rethinking Judgment
Test Driving Theology 