An invitation

An invitation

When it happens to me, I feel fully alive. A momentary shift of perspective, sometimes intentional, sometimes a surprise. Often it’s a spiritual experience—even supernatural. What am I talking about? Wonder.

I’m inviting you to take a few minutes and wonder with me…

Wonder of flyingIt can occur in the most ordinary ways…a robin building her nest in the eaves of our front porch…tiny beaks appearing, open and hungry…the process of learning to fly.

The wonder of communication

 

Or how about my little granddaughter, lifting one hand to greet me. Her vocabulary expands exponentially at age two. I wonder at the miracle of language and the nuances of tiny gestures.

As author Anthony Doerr said, sublimity is “the instant when one thing is about to become something else. Day to night, caterpillar to butterfly. Fawn to doe. Experiment to result. Boy to man.”[i]Continue reading

Why People Love Dogs

Why People Love Dogs

Dogs disagreed“The way I see it, dogs had this big meeting, oh, maybe 20,000 years ago. A huge meeting—an international convention with delegates from everywhere. And that’s when they decided that humans were the up-and-coming species and dogs were going to throw their lot in with them. The decision was obviously not unanimous. The wolves and dingoes walked out in protest.

Cats didn't agree with dogs“Cats had an even more negative reaction…(denouncing) canine subservience to the human hyperpower…Using guile and seduction, they managed to get humans to feed them, thus preserving their superciliousness without going hungry.

“Dogs, being guileless, signed and delivered. It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

Charles Krauthammer, “Of Dogs and Men,” Things That MatterContinue reading

Fasting Soul Noise

Fasting Soul Noise

It all started one Wednesday. A group of my friends were discussing the idea of fasting “criticism.” We’d just read an excerpt[i] by author Catherine Marshall on the topic. God impressed on her that she had a critical spirit and was to give it up for one whole day.

Objections crowded her mind. What about righteous judgment? But God brushed her resistance aside. “Just obey Me without questioning: an absolute fast on any critical statements for this day.”

fasting frees the mindAt first she felt empty, as if her personhood had been erased. Around the lunch table with her talkative family, topics concerning the judicial system and the institutional church emerged and she had to suppress her barbed comments. It seemed that no one missed her penetrating observations! She didn’t understand what God was doing…Continue reading