Spirituality
I have degrees in creative writing and biblical studies. I write about faith in my fiction and poetry, and explore different ideas on this Substack as well. “Spirituality” encompasses faith, theology, parenting/family, and grief. I have an index of all my posts on Grief, but some of them overlap here.
Advent 2024: Love
If you’ve been reading my posts this month—on hope, peace, and joy—you may have noticed a pattern: “here is what _______ is not; now let’s explore what it is or what it could be.”
Advent 2024: Joy
The Advent / Christmas season is supposedly “the most wonderful time of the year,” full of “joy, peace, love, cheer.” The “holiday season” may be full of all sorts of emotions, but joy reigns supreme.
Advent 2024: Peace
O Lord, why do you make me see wrongdoing and look at trouble? Destructions and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So the law becomes slack and justice never prevails.
A Prayer for Veterans Day
Note: The opening and closing paragraphs are adapted from the Book of Common Prayer. I wrote this prayer for my intern team in 2021, of whom one was a veteran. The plain-text portions are read by a singular voice, the bold portions are read collectively.
A Prayer for Elections
Election day is tomorrow. News can keep us informed, opinion pieces can persuade us, and our beliefs can ground our convictions. All of these things can add to our stress and anxiety as well. What if our candidate doesn’t win? What if our candidate does win? What if this or that initiative passes (or not)? Sometimes it f…
The Web of Love
We are all connected by a web of relationships. Between me and every other human who has ever lived is a thread binding us together. Between me and every animal, every plant, every rock, all of creation, is another set of threads.
Proverbs as Story Problems
I have some friends who have a problem with the biblical book of Proverbs. They view it as a collection of “prosperity gospel” statements—obey God, God will bless you with material wealth—which people twist and proof-text for their own agendas. Some verses from Proverbs are problematic for other reasons—they seem to enco…
Eternity: A Meandering
As I continue to work on my novel about a bereaved father who gets a tour of heaven in his dreams, I run into fun and interesting problems. Some of them are intellectual (how to “rationalize” an idea), while others are more practical, physical. One particularly potent problem is: what do people look like in heaven? How do earthly bodies correspond to sp…
Prayer After the Death of a Colleague
Two years ago, one of my work colleagues died unexpectedly. The suddenness of it was shocking and, of course, it was extremely saddening. Our department hosted a memorial service which was attended by folks from all over campus.
Viewing Children as Our Peers
At “Writing Under the Writing,” I explore ideas related to my writing practices and projects. While this connection to my writing is implicit, sometimes the posts may feel like a random smattering of thoughts. In order to make my posts a little more coherent, I’ve decided to start adding a paragraph or two ab…
"What Do I Still Lack?"
"Vocation" is one of those words that people use in many different ways. In its most narrow and technical sense, it applies to specific jobs (that one might learn at a "vocational" college). One level broader, it refers to a job or career that one has. In my context, working at a Christian university, this latter association…
Imprecatory Love
Note: I originally posted this on my Wordpress blog in 2022. I have made some minor edits to it here. I've been wrestling with how the psalms of vengeance are to be read through the lens of the Christian call to “love our enemies.” Surely the imprecatory psalms demonstrate for us that: (1) we can go to God with our anger in prayer; (2) the vengeance we …
And God at Every Gate
My five-year-old is a very picky eater. Beyond the roughly 15 food options he will consume, he refuses to try anything else. If, by luck and pestering, he takes an “adventure bite” of something, it will not be added to his diet, even if he says he likes it. We have allowed him his limited palate, and only occasionally o…
Good Friday and Child Loss
Note: This is an entry for a community devotional I originally wrote in 2019. I reposted it on my Wordpress blog in 2021. I’ve made some minor changes in order to repost it here. The text for the day was Psalm 22. Five days before Christmas, 2017, our 18-month-old son died unexpectedly. He was perfectly healthy, and there is no known cause of death. I ca…
I Don't Know Yet, But I'm Here Doing It
On Christmas Eve, my 5-year-old son Finley participated in his first Christmas pageant. The children’s pastor had asked him two weeks prior if he wanted to be a shepherd. He replied with his signature response: “I don’t know yet.” The day before, we asked him again. “I don’t know yet.” We asked him the morning of. “I don’t know yet!”
What if the letters of Paul were rewritten in the style of the Analects of Confucius?
I started a new tradition in 2022. Every year, I choose three words to anchor my thinking. I keep a journal for all my thoughts about these words. I read books related to these words. It’s a fun (and profound) way to focus my thinking and reflecting for the year.