I’d known – and loved – the closing line of Mary Oliver’s poem The Summer Day for years. A family in our neighborhood in St. Paul had made a large mosaic featuring it and hung it beside their front door. Whether walking the dog or running with a friend, I’d pass by their home and...
Matthew 10:40-42
posted by DJL
“Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the...
Buechner on “Meager Prayer”
posted by DJL
Do you ever worry about your prayer life? Actually, let me phrase that another way. When on those occasional moments that you think about your prayer life, do you feel like it’s inadequate? If so, then you’re in the same boat that I am. And, as it turns out, with Frederick Buechner as well. I take some comfort in that, as Buechner is one of my favorite authors and theologians. (His book Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy, and Fairy Tale is one of my favorite reads of all time, any genre, and absolutely my favorite book on preaching.) And so to hear him describe his prayers as scattered and as mumbles and to confess his own...
Matthew 10:34-39
posted by DJL
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s foes will be members of one’s own...
Freedom, Constriction, and Creativity
posted by DJL
You probably don’t know who Jack White is. Then again, maybe you do. So let me say it this way, until earlier this morning I didn’t know who Jack White is. But I’ve recently learned something important from him, something I want to share about creativity through this 2-minute except of an interview with him. It’s actually something I know to be true from my own experience, but I seem regularly to forget, and so I appreciated the clear reminder about the relationship between creativity and freedom. Before getting to his insight, though, consider this description of Jack from Wikipedia: He has been ranked No. 17 on Rolling...