It happened so fast. We had no idea on Saturday morning that the water was blocking off roads. We had a family graveside to go to in Titonka, and we left with the clothes on our backs at 8:00 a.m. In Spencer, we get flood watches and warnings every spring, so we don’t pay much attention to them. Unless there is a drought—which we have … Continue reading Notes from a Soggy Small Town
Prayer. Over the course of my life, that word and practice has meant different things. At first, we learn rote prayers. “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep…” The Lord’s Prayer. Prayers before meals. Growing up, our before-meal prayer went like this: “Father, bless this food we take, and bless us all, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.” Our … Continue reading The Miner
If the cold must remain then I can embrace it swaddle my limbs lace the boots walk into the woods where the silence penetrates my crusty surface and the chickadee pins it over my lips. I follow animal tracks to the river in search of eagles as creatures huddle under the disturbance. No luck there but the hoarfrost more than suffices as close examination has … Continue reading Winter’s Consolation
O King of the nations, and their desire, the cornerstone making both one: Come and save the human race, which you fashioned from clay. There is so much more to making than forming shapes. There is the character of clay, the knowing hand, the promise of an image. Love makes no demands on us except to yield to her devotion and find ourselves among her … Continue reading O King of Nations
O Wisdom, coming forth from the mouth of the Most High, reaching from one end to the other mightily, and sweetly ordering all things: Come and teach us the way of prudence. The wide world does Your will, every atom and ant busily doing its work, stars and systems shaping the space of existence. Original. Obedient. “I delight to do your will” is true of … Continue reading O Wisdom
She thought herself unnoticed, ordinary until the gaze of Joseph lit a flame of love and new awareness in her spirit, an inner warming when he said her name. And then a shocking, wondrous invitation, a privilege and burden never sought. The fiery figure offered explanation: her humble self was hearth divinely wrought. The darkness of our weary lives is broken, our waking dreams found … Continue reading Annunciations
Splash, rumble, plink, whoosh, Plop, mumble, bang, sploosh. Clang, jiggle, roar, ding, Thrust, giggle, vroom, fling. The onomata runs around attempting to be freer, but he cannot escape the sound of his pursuing poeia. Continue reading No Escape
I cannot put the glory into a poem. The Kyiv Chamber Choir sings “In Thy Kingdom”, their voices resonating, swelling in what I picture as a beautiful cathedral. How they cannot make this beauty now. How they are scattered and the church is a shell where the music cannot carom off its walls but its memory flies into the atmosphere as a prayer. Dissipates. How … Continue reading The Music Over There
Winter Day in Nebraska I glance out, see the geese stitch the sky over Interstate 80 their ragged, urgent arrows aiming somewhere east southeast no big deal but they keep coming prophecies sliding like hieroglyphs against a cave wall of grey clouds as “I Got the Boy” blares on the pickup radio reflecting on the passage of time without resentment: “She got the future, I … Continue reading Winter Day in Nebraska
This is the second in a five part series, “Unexpected Treasures in the Desert.” It is a sermon series for the congregations I am serving, known collectively as Prairie Faith Partners. This series is provided to help you navigate the COVID-19 epidemic “wilderness” we are experiencing together. For each sermon I am writing my own reflections on the texts, which I like to do in … Continue reading Gift for the Tabernacle
saint sinner seeker 