WS Update: Christmas Time. Advent Time
Every year around this time I find myself asking, “Where did the time go?!” “How is Christmas a month away?!” Perhaps it is because Christmas movies start playing around Halloween, or Black Friday sales start the Tuesday before. Humans can’t help trying to manipulate time to fit their schedules. This is why I am grateful…
WS Update: Hearing Prayer, Seeing Tears
The Old Testament is wise, mysterious, disturbing, and hopeful. A monolithic reading that interprets its writings as reflecting a wrathful God as opposed to the gracious God of the New Testament misses the thread of the larger story that leads to Jesus and the character of our eternal God. For example, Ahab, the husband of Jezebel,…
WS Update: Learning to See
I recently reread C.S. Lewis’ Reflections on the Psalms and came across a line that has stayed with me. While making the point that his book wasn’t written as an ‘apologetic’ for Christianity, Lewis wrote: “A (person) can’t always be defending the truth; there must be a time to feed on it.” In a world that too…
WS Update: The God of the Valleys
The history of Israel in the Old Testament is a rich reservoir of insight into the character of God. 1 Kings 20 narrates a war between Syria and Israel. The Syrians believed that if they engaged Israel in the valley they would have an advantage. A prophet came to Israel’s king and said: This is…
WS Update: Reading and Resting
Horace, the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus, wrote a letter counseling a friend in search of answers to the timeless questions as Horace understood them: What is the way to become a friend to yourself? What brings tranquility? What makes you care less? His answer was to “interrogate the writings of the wise.”…
WS Update: Of Acorns and Walking
Walking our dog Charlie in Central Park on autumn mornings allows me to see beauty I would otherwise miss. It also allows me to “see” into deeper aspects of my own heart. Crunching under my feet the last few weeks have been acorns strewn by the hundreds on the ground: some on paved walks, others on hard soil,…
WS Update: Love is the Answer
We all agree that love is a virtue that, when exercised, makes life better because it makes relationships better. Yesterday we explored Jesus’ seemingly impossible command to be perfect as God is perfect. Instead of aggressively protecting our own rights and interests (eye for an eye), followers of Jesus are to treat others in a way…
WS Update: Connecting in America
A recent article titled “Why are we Lonely?” seeks to answer that question through the writings of Alexis de Tocqueville. In his “Democracy in America” de Tocqueville saw a restlessness in the modern world, captured by this quote: “Scarcely have you descended on the soil of America when you find yourself in the midst of…
WS Update: Mornings
I walk our dog every morning in Central Park and am regularly amazed at how many “morning people” there are in NYC. Some are riding bikes; others are running. Several are sipping coffee and reading. For those of you who are up early and want to use that time to connect with people in our…
WS Update: Living Water
Living in NYC for over 30 years, thousands of people have crossed my path. Faces and names come and go, but some individuals are indelible. Last week one of those individuals, Ellie Ellsworth, passed away after a short but painful battle with lung cancer. For those who never knew Ellie, she was someone who met…