Buttercups in Bloom

There is something that is burning to be written...something pulling me inside as if I need to say something but to be honest I don't feel as though I have anything important to write or to say aloud.   And yet.... there is a yearning that is pulling me to the keys to express something that is lingering within my very being. All I can really think to say is:  God you are incredible.  You are beyond my wildest dreams.  Holy and most stunning creator I am thankful that you said yes to brining me into this world.  King of All, I am astounded to find you lurking and waiting for me in the unexpected places of my life.  Rock and Sustainer your presence in my life, your longevity and breath supersede any expectation that I have in  my frail little mind. There is a way of living and being.   A way of leaning into a presence......          A way of accepting that which cannot be explained.....              A way of opening yourself to the truth of who you are and who

This morning I found my way back to my normal routine. A routine that includes waking up Emma, preparing my lunch, making sure that everyone has breakfast and heading to the gym. I've been back from a pilgrimage to the Holy Lands for four days now.  I've stood in the pulpit that God has given me here at Morton Memorial UMC to proclaim the Good News.  I've walked through the jet-lag and unlike my fellow pilgrims I was 'back' yesterday. I've gone to get groceries and put them all away.  I have planned our meals for the week.  I made sure that all the laundry was washed, dried, ironed and put away.   Today should not have been any different, it should have not have been as strange as it was. But this morning was different.  The silence of the morning, the dew still hanging on the grass and the sun slowing rising above our sweet mountain gave way to something greater. While I was riding the stationary bike at the gym I simply put my iPod on shuffle.  I haven

Making your way home  I wrote this on the way home from the Holy Lands while I was sitting in the darkness of the early morning on the plane. Home is an interesting word. It is definitely where your heart is....it is where your heart connects...it is where your soul is filled and where you find your foundation. I have missed Emma  and Luke in more ways than I can count. Yet in the midst of wanting to be at home with them, I have been reminded that my home is so much broader and deeper than the two of them. My home is found when I lean into the power of a creator that has spanned the ages. Home is found as I push against a rock so strong that it cannot be moved.  Home is the safety that abounds when the storms of life are ranging all around you and the Savior raises his voice to calm the seas just for you. Home brings you back into community even in the midst of not always deserving it. Home is the wisdom found in others. Home comes when we offer all of who we are to a Father who emb

Our time is quickly fading here in the land that is full of presence and peace. Our minds are disengaging from the awe of that which is before us and turning to the things of home. My heart is heavy today as we make our way home from Bethany and the Dead Sea.  The drive home from the Dead Sea means that tomorrow is our last day here in the land where my Savior grew into a young man....grapled with the pressures of coming of age.....the place where he wasn't afraid to reach out and touch someone to heal the brokenness that lived within them....the place where he offered to be the living water for any who would want to drink of it and never thirst again. We have all experienced moments of deep excavation of the soul during these days here in the land of our faith.  Moments where the rock and the dirt in our lives needed to be slowly and painstakingly brushed away.  In the midst of that deep soul scraping moments that we have experienced Jesus comes to us today and offers

Silence The sun may have been beating down upon us but in the shadow of the Western Wall all things seem to fall away.  Our Jewish brothers and sisters were coming before their day of work or school began to pray and lift up their prayers to God himself. I love the Wall. I love touching the foundation of my faith. I sat watching and listening as so many others experienced the holiness of the Wall for the first time ever.  In the listening and the watching I was drawn to a prayer book. I wanted to hold it and let the words of the Psalms flow upon me. I wanted to hold the words of Isaiah and remember the sacrifice that he was willing to make for the One that he so deeply believed in.  I sat holding a prayer book filled with symbols in which I did not understand; in which I could not read and yet there in the midst of it all was God. The Rock of my salvation was before me. The Strong Tower has  protected me from my enemies. The Holy of Holies laid the foundation upon which I

As we gathered on the terrace of the dining room for breakfast a gentle breeze blew across our souls. While eating breakfast the sun shone in full glory as the orange ball crept into the sky. Coffee, awe and goodness filled our breakfast tables as we prepared for the journey down the Via Dolorsa  into Calvary By 7:00am we were praying the stations along the Via; the way of the cross.The Old City was in full swing this morning with shops opening, children rushing off to school and parents making their way to work.  Each station brought a different emotion as to the weight that Jesus carried for us as he walked the hill to Calvary. The movement through the city heightened our awareness that as the cross was forced upon Jesus' back to carry through the city the people would have been going about their daily lives.  They wouldn't have stopped, if they did they did not linger on his presence they simply noticed that another criminal was being led through the city. The Via Dolorsa