Word&Way Voices

A census is not a spiritual matter, but numbers play an important role in church life. Numbers are a bit like a temperature. It is a first line of judgment but not the only one.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the wow factor. It’s those moments or things in your life that make you instantly pause and have a profound moment of appreciation. If you’re lucky, it sometimes even takes your breath away.

Please and thank you are phrases that we all are used to saying. We say them so much that they may seem like formalities. Even if they are formalities, they are important to say and hear. In a way, Psalm 116 emphasizes the importance of “please and thank you” in our relationship with God. 

COVID-19 has created an avalanche of death, disease, suffering, and uncertainty. One helpful coping device is to find the positives in the midst of all the tragedy. I sat down recently and listed some takeaways. See if you can relate.

In this season of uncertainty, let us take a moment to reflect on what sort of habits are shaped by the world and how we might release them in exchange for better, transformational habits.

A friend sent me a card in the mail. Tucked inside her note was a folded coloring sheet. She had already colored half of it and asked me to color the other half, then return to her. I was instantly smitten with the idea.

More than 25 of my many years were spent in school. In those years I read, accumulated, and appreciated many books. I came to regard those books as friends. We became so familiar I could recognize them on the shelf while sitting at my desk several feet away.

I must acknowledge that this year has not turned out the way that I had hoped or prayed. And unfortunately, we do not have any idea when life will begin to look like we thought it would. The only thing we can be certain of for the near future is … uncertainty.

I am afraid.  This is not a confession pastors are supposed to make. 

Slogging through the COVID-19 pandemic is a daily exercise in perseverance and improvisation. So it probably wouldn’t surprise you that a few days ago I found myself crying as I drove alone in my Camry. No, the tears were not about the latest coronavirus report -- it was Luciano Pavarotti.