A few years ago my parents wanted to talk with me and my sister about their eventual death. I had anticipated a sad conversation, but my dad brought a great deal...

At the start of fall, my mom and I would harvest seeds. A summer of marigolds, lettuce, peppers, tomatoes, and perilla leaves would give way to fall. Those seeds looked so...

My friends are my friends because we like each other. We are kind to each other. We celebrate one another. Friendships take time, energy, and patience, but, in the end, the...

Christian life is a matter of focusing our motives and actions not on short-sighted pleasure or success but on understanding God’s true nature. What motivates you to live the way you...

Poetry was my first introduction to creative writing. A staple assignment of the first few days of most years of elementary school included writing an acrostic poem using our first names—each...

The fact that Joseph’s story—the story of being sold into slavery by his own family, finding healing, and coming into power to ultimately save his people—became a hit Broadway musical is...

It is not unusual to see “TW” (trigger warning) on a syllabus or on social media to alert readers that the content may include references to issues, ideas, or stories that...

One of the biggest misconceptions about Jesus is that he expected and wanted his disciples to suffer. As the Rev. Naomi Washington-Leaphart said, “Suffering is not redemptive.” These words fly in...

God’s way of seeing the world is fundamentally different from the way we see it. This is never more clearly illustrated than in the Beatitudes that we read today. Every statement...

Today’s Gospel reading makes a curious claim about Jesus. Luke says that “power came out from [Jesus] and healed all of them.” This is one of the most compelling claims about...