On Tabitha (And What Those Things You Can't Get Rid of Say About You)
What we discover here in this tender blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment is all that Tabitha had meant to this community. And we see that it’s a profound and significant loss — because Tabitha’s life mirrored that of Jesus. Because this detail reveals just how much she blessed these women.
How Trust and Belief Are Two Different Things (And Why It Matters)
Belief implies that the action is limited to the mind. To the head. About what you can assent to conceptually. You can believe someone or something without trusting it. But trust is so much more than that.
There’s A Chance
He hears it, and as he rises to his feet, you can almost imagine a smile breaking across his face as he exclaims, “So you’re telling me there’s a chance…”
There’s Always a Voice Trying to Silence Our Praise
But when the crowd gets too raucous, when the parade is bumping, when the praise gets to be too much and too risky, what happens?
A Spelling Bee Second Chance?
It’s lavish. It’s illogical. It’s unearned — and that’s precisely the point.
So... What Are Your Hobbies?
Even when it seems like the tree is doing nothing at all, the gardener still understands the tree to be worthy of care, of nourishment, of tending, of love.
Like A Mother
He’s essentially saying, “I will care for you with the ferocity and strength of a mother."
Full
So I wonder — like those tortilla chips at the start of a meal that leave you full but still so empty, as we begin this season of Lent — I wonder what for you could be filling you up but still leaving you empty?
I'm Not Here
Reflection Delivered at Chapel in the Pines Presbyterian Church as part of a
joint Ash Wednesday service
March 2, 2022
Turning Point
Pack up your tents, my friends — because we can’t stay here. Love is on the move.
