The Myth of Return, and Grief
The possibility of return holds a powerful grip on the human psyche and in our mythology (by which I mean foundational stories we tell about ourselves). The two most prominent biblical examples of return I can think of involve The Garden of Eden and Jerusalem. The first portrays a pristine…
Name tags +
These last couple weeks we’ve been wearing name tags during in-person worship services. It’s good to remind each other who we are, or at least what our parents named us. After living most of my life as the only Joel in the room, I now enjoy being one of several…
Turning our attention
We live, as some have observed, in an attention economy. Attention, like time, is a limited resource. Because where we direct our attention impacts what we buy, getting and keeping our attention is a key strategy for those with something to sell. Attention is also a spiritual resource. It is…
Lent Devotional: Go Back Home
The church camp I grew up going to every summer had a tradition that, in retrospect, was somewhat odd. One of the songs we regularly sang as part of mealtimes or worship services was the folk song “500 Miles.” I always naively assumed this was just a camp song, and…
Ukraine and Mennonites, war and peace
In the late 1700s the Russian leader Catherine the Great issued a decree inviting Europeans to come settle the newly conquered lands of the Russian Empire in present day Ukraine. German speaking Mennonites answered the call. They had previously fled persecution in the Netherlands and viewed this as an opportunity…
