Category Archives: Reflections

And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice againstContinue reading “How to Hear”

On one of those days, as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with him to heal. And behold, some men were bringing on a bed a man who wasContinue reading “The Paralytic’s Friends”

O sacred Head, now wounded,with grief and shame weighed down,now scornfully surroundedwith thorns, thine only crown!O sacred Head, what glory,what bliss till now was thine!Yet, though despised and gory,I joy to call thee mine. What thou, my Lord, hast sufferedwas all for sinners’ gain.Mine, mine was the transgression,but thine the deadly pain.Lo, here I fall,Continue reading “O Sacred Head”

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—thatContinue reading “Strength So That”

In January of 2019, I started down Highway 1 for a weekend of spiritual retreat and prayer. My destination was a cottage at a monastery just south of Big Sur, so I left San Francisco in the evening for a three-hour drive. That was the plan, anyway, until it started pouring rain. By the timeContinue reading “No Detour”

In my reflections on Ruth (this being the last one), I’ve described the characters as ordinary, imperfect folks who received extraordinary love from God. But Ruth is, ultimately, not remembered as an ordinary person, and her story is more than a tragedy that God turns into a quaint, happy ending. Boaz marries Ruth and theyContinue reading “Reflections on Ruth: The Butterfly Effect”

In my previous post, I introduced an unremarkable Israelite family that moved to Moab to ride out a famine. I described them as “ordinary people trying to live decent lives,” and I think they were. But the ordinary human condition is brokenness, not holiness, and this family was no exception.  When Naomi and her husbandContinue reading “Reflections on Ruth: Foreshadowing”

The Book of Ruth is about a family that is unremarkable and, therefore, relatable. There’s a husband, a wife, and their two sons. They live in Israel, in a town about thirty miles from where God’s ark sat in a tent. But it’s hard to say how often they visited the tabernacle. We know howContinue reading “Reflections on Ruth: The Famine”

It’s April 2019, 8:30 am on a Tuesday. I am wearing a knee-length black down jacket taking the 47 down Geary to FiDi. A classic SF day- Carl, the fog has taken over west SF while east SF remains nice and sunny. On the bus, I’m listening to my 3rd Joel Osteen podcast episode ofContinue reading “My Journey to First Pres”

Romans 8:26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.  Jesus seemed to love awkward conversations. In John’s gospel Nicodemus opens up his Jesus interview with a big compliment – stillContinue reading “What if I ask God for the wrong thing?”