“Look for the helpers,” Mr. Rogers’ mother famously told him when he saw something scary on the news. If I may add: look for the helpers and the historians. There is plenty of scary on the news this year, the year of our nation’s semiquincentennial. Looking for the larger story I’ve been born into brings [...]
If you were a piece of pottery, what would you be? Here’s a 10-minute imaginative exercise (devotional, spiritual reading, meditation, whatever you’d like to call it) to help you connect with what the Potter is doing in your life right now. Whether your vessel is fully-formed, cracked, broken, spoiled, full, wide-mouthed, colorful, over-used, plain or [...]
She’s a python Binding me up tight Hanging me upside down And then blaming me For not being able to breathe. She’s a goalkeeper Defending against rest Blocking peace Punting stillness out of the park Until I give up and keep moving. . She’s a circuit scrambler Frying my logic and memory Blowing out [...]
Reading the gospels, we encounter a Jesus who loved questions. It was a consistent approach in His conversations, whether with the sick, the religious elite, or his best friends. Sometimes he’d even answer questions with another question! If Jesus employed them, surely questions can be a helpful spiritual tool to get to the heart of [...]
Hearing God’s voice is a popular topic of sermons, books, conversations, prayers and journal pages. Each person has their own journey when it comes to hearing God, based in theology and mostly experience. In my experience, this is a complex issue which the Sunday-School-answers don’t address deeply. Here are a series of questions that may [...]
One century ago this week, the 19th amendment was ratified in Nashville, Tennessee, securing American women the right to vote. Do you know the story? It's time to celebrate with a little history! The following is a brief summary that barely scratches the surface of this amazing chapter in American and Tennessee history. On a [...]
Last night, I attended a community discussion on racial issues prompted by the murder of George Floyd and last weekend’s demonstrations. The crowd was large in size and in whiteness. We had the privilege of listening to a few black neighbors talk courageously about how they feel right now, and what it’s like to be [...]
Jay gave me this print for Christmas, and just yesterday I framed it. It’s the history of the routes of the Mississippi River along the banks of Tennessee and Mississippi. You see, before the Corps of Engineers set an unchanging path for the mighty river, it used to have its way with the silty bottomland. [...]
“Waiting until this is over and we can get back to normal.” I’ve been using this kind of language a lot these days - how about you? It’s slowly occurring to me that we might not get back to “normal” by a certain “date.” That after a while, once the storm has passed, we will [...]
It's hard to describe exactly what's going on these days. Have you been able to put into words the way the shelter-in-place is affecting you? All these terrible news reports happening not on the other side of the world, but in the city where your sister lives, in your own state, possibly in your own [...]
Rachel Norris 