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A Lenten Wilderness Sketching Journey
In the past five weeks of Lent, I’ve been meditating on the thought of being with Jesus in the wilderness. While we don’t have much geographical wilderness in our part of New York, there are other sorts of wilderness we can find ourselves in. Physical wilderness due to illness or injury; relational wilderness due to loneliness or broken relationships; emotional wilderness of grief and other hurts; spiritual wilderness of not knowing God or of not sensing his presence. I’ve found myself drawn to passages of Scripture that describe the challenges or express the anguish and longings that such wilderness experiences evoke, and while I’ve meditated on these passages, I’ve spent…
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Easter Week
But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared…when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling clothing; and as the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living One among the dead? He is not here, but He has risen. Remember how he spoke to you while he was still in Galilee, saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the…
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Palm Sunday
In this week between Palm Sunday and Easter, we remember Jesus’ suffering for us, from the time he entered Jerusalem, through his crucifixion and burial. As we walk through this week, we’ll look at prophetic verses from Isaiah, written nearly 700 years before the crucifixion, as well as some of Jesus’ words recorded in the gospels. Let’s ponder these passages deeply, thinking about how they speak to us and our faith or lack thereof, and allow them to fill us with gratitude for all that Jesus has done for us. Monday: As [Jesus] approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had…
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Praying with Trees
I become fidgety when I have to sit still in meetings, even in meetings I generally enjoy, even in prayer meetings. So, even though I very much appreciated the privilege of gathering with other believers in prayer, I found myself becoming distracted and antsy when everyone else was quietly focused and sitting still. I just couldn’t sit so still for long, and that caused my mind to wander to my walk with my dog in the sunshine that afternoon, the interesting bird at my feeder, a phone call with a friend, my next meal, and so on… One rainy November day I was walking in the woods with a friend…