Mercy & Grace
Rabbit Rabbit
Thursday, February 3rd, 2011Two days ago I learned that my friend Ellie committed suicide. I am very sad. Ellie was the secretary in the foreign language department at St. Olaf College, where I went to school. For some reason or another the work study gods smiled down on my blonde head instead of all the others on the [...]
Stewarding Presence Even When God Seems Absent
Monday, November 22nd, 2010I was so pleased to have been asked recently to prepare a presentation for the Stephen’s Ministers of my congregation, and I decided to make the gathered group into guinea pigs. For some time, I’ve been mulling the experience of pain, grief, and suffering as it is experienced in the Church. I wanted to use [...]
Forgiveness is Easter Applied
Monday, November 1st, 2010Reader Question How can I ask God for forgiveness? It seems like it is making light of all the things I’ve done wrong in the past. Thank you for this question. It’s pertinent, powerful, and pesky. Here’s one way of thinking through what forgiveness is about: or, rather, what it is not about. It’s the [...]
“Saving” Politics
Monday, October 25th, 2010The only time I get to see Jon Stewart is on youtube clips. I save my ironing for Masterpiece Mystery on Sunday nights, and my laundry folding for PBSkids’ Ruff Ruffman after school. (Side note: Did you happen to catch Sherlock Holmes last night? Almost makes me hope that Jesus won’t come before the series [...]
Lutherans and grace
Friday, September 10th, 2010I try to believe that grace is a fundamental teaching of the Lutheran faith. I have trouble with that at times. Any ideas?
Hunches, hopes, hints about grace
Thursday, July 29th, 2010Question: If we are saved by God’s grace and yet we continue to turn our back on God, i.e., we don’t practice our faith, we don’t pray, we don’t read God’s word, we continue to repeat the same sins over and over, etc. if we die are we saved or did we fall short of [...]
Married, with children
Thursday, June 3rd, 2010Clearly I have been AWOL and MIA in terms of my blog, and I apologize! But that is because not only am I “with children,” but I am now also “married,” as of May 21. Wedding preparation on the heels of the OMG open house, and then moving belongings, and having a “familymoon” with the [...]
Forgiveness and Overcoming
Thursday, March 11th, 2010I apologize for the delay in writing my latest blog! Our local newspaper covered OMG last Thursday, and I have been grateful for the busy-ness that the article created. A special thanks to Jill Callison for taking the time to visit in the very nifty OMG office. My mind is on forgiveness, these days, because, well, [...]
Passion: Love and Suffering
Saturday, February 13th, 2010One of my favorite etymologies concerns the word “compassion,” a word that I hope you will agree is remarkably suitable for a Valentine’s Day reflection! Compassion comes from the Latin, compassionem, meaning ‘sympathy,’ itself stemming from compassus, ‘to feel pity,’ which in turn comes from ‘com-,’ meaning ‘together,’ and ‘pati,’ namely ‘to suffer.’ That’s right. [...]
