Posts Tagged ‘children’
Toby (a Love Story)
“Don’t you think that dog is beautiful?” she asks, showing me a picture of a pit bull on the animal adoption website for the hundredth time. She sees something in them that I just can’t quite find, and believes with unbated optimism that, given enough opportunities, I too will fall in love with a dog…
Read MoreDay 22: Having an Ordinary Day
My liturgical friends have a stretch of the church calendar they call “ordinary time”. I don’t know very much about it, but I think it has something to do with the rhythms of life, and the way that the high points and holidays are scattered across stretches of the year that are simply ordinary. Today…
Read MoreDay 07: Playing with Legos
I’m sitting on the floor in the boys’ bedroom next to an ocean of Legos. The three-year-old is building a monster truck, or at least an abstract impression of a monster truck. Every few minutes he lets out a roar — the sort of wordless, guttural howl of frustration that only toddlers know. “UUUGGGGGHHHHHHH!’ I…
Read MoreWhy My Boys Wore Spiderman Costumes to Church Today
“Daddy, can I wear my Spiderman costume to church?” It’s Sunday morning and I’m trying to drink my second cup of coffee and procrastinating on getting dressed. “Go find some clothes so I can get you dressed,” I’d told Keenan. (He’s four years old, and this mission usually has a fifty percent success rate.) Today…
Read MoreDoes Jesus Heal Our Ouchies?
“Does Jesus heal our ouchies?” It’s one of those moments when abstract spirituality meets bruises and scraped knees, and my son wonders with the sort of innocent curiosity possessed only by a three-year-old. I hear myself answering him before I even stop to think about what I should say. /// A baby born too soon…
Read More10 Things I Learned at #WildGoose14
On Sunday morning I joined a parade down a dirt road in a campground, sang peace songs led by Rev. Yolanda on an acoustic guitar, and received communion from a mason jar in a grass clearing with sweat dripping down my legs and back. That was church. There was a sermon, too, but I didn’t hear most of…
Read MoreMy Innocence Was Stolen From Me
A few days ago an essay was published titled “My Easy Trip from Youth Pastor to Felon.” The narrator relates his story of a “spiral into sin”, detailing how his sin destroyed his life and ministry. It wasn’t until the very end of the story that he noted that his “friend” with which he was having an…
Read MoreHere's to the Children
“Love saves people.” (My three-year-old son says more in three words than I can in a thousand, and it’s the Gospel.) “Love saves people,” he told Mommy as he rubbed her head, and he was trying to save her with all the love his little hands could hold. No wonder Jesus said that the Kingdom belongs…
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