“It is said of God that no one can behold his face and live. I always thought this meant that no one could see his splendor and live. A friend said perhaps it means that no one could see his sorrow and live. Or perhaps his sorrow is his splendor.” This quote by Nicholas Wolterstorff […]
Our Sierra View Bible Study has recently started a study of the book of Hebrews. It is a book that is rarely studied in its entirety. Perhaps this is because it is so dense, with so many references to other Old Testament texts. Perhaps it is because we know so little about its author or […]
Nothing feels better than being certain about something. In our day-to-day lives we are always looking for “clear cut” and “sure things.” It makes sense then that we would seek the same things in our spiritual lives. To our chagrin, certainty is elusive in the realm of the spiritual. Sometimes our pursuit of certainty gets […]
For one week every July I leave my chaplain/pastor routine in the Valley for an entirely different experience: Camp Director for our 3rd-12th graders at Camp Keola, situated at 7500 feet at Huntington Lake. In addition to swimming, singing and s’mores, it was a week of fellowship and faith formation shaped around the theme of: […]
When we experience hardship and tribulation in life our tendency is to immediately question things. Question what we might have done wrong to deserve such hardship, question how a good God could allow us to experience such tribulation in the first place, question whether the universe bends towards darkness and not towards light. Questions like […]
We all have regrets. The thoughts of what we “should have” done instead of what we did, often nibbling at the corners of our minds as we fall asleep at night or when we find ourselves in a reflective mood. Joan Chittister, in her book The Gift of Years, speaks of the two faces of regrets: […]
It seems to be a fairly universal human trait to want to know exactly what goes in each box. We have a work box, we have a family box, we have a faith box and so on. This pandemic year has turned our boxes upside down into one pile in the middle of the floor […]
As this year wraps up not many of us are sad to see it go. It has been a year none of us anticipated a year ago when we excitedly watched the ball drop on New Years Eve. COVID has cast a shadow on almost every part of our lives this year, from our health, […]
Our culture has an unhealthy view of aging. We draw the trajectory like a pyramid. Everything is looking up until midlife, and then it is all downhill from there. It is no wonder we are conditioned to see life like this, considering our disproportionate value on sexuality and productivity. But scripture paints a different […]
I have always loved how the Bible informs us of its heroes’ shortcomings right alongside their heroic feats without batting an eye. I was reminded of this again as we have worked our way through the story of Moses in our weekly Chats with the Chaplain. When Moses stumbles upon the burning bush he is […]