Daily Dose (January 20 – 23)
TUESDAY JANUARY 20 -- Have you read Old Turtle and the Broken Truth, by Douglas Wood?The children’s book tells an imaginary story of how the world came to be so fragmented when it is meant to be whole, and how…
Let us let go of the labels
In Luke's Gospel, there is a story about a "bent woman." We don't know her name. Just the label that has been given to her. A label she has carried for 18 years. Those around her put her in a…
Daily Dose (January 13 – 16)
TUESDAY JANUARY 13 -- Mother Pollard was one of the elders of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, during the bus boycott of 1955-56. When her pastor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., suggested she go back to the buses…
No longer afraid
Going through his five-year-old son's backpack, a father found a picture of a little boy standing under a rainbow crying. His first thought was, "Oh God, my son is having some serious problems."When he asked his son about the picture,…
Daily Dose (January 6 – 9)
TUESDAY JANUARY 6 -- A pious man heard God. “Tomorrow night I’m going to visit your home,” the voice told him.The man pushed aside his predictable hesitation, and rolled the dice in favor of belief. After all, it’s not often…
Yes, we can choose
At the base of a volcano in the middle of Lake Nicaragua, there is an orphanage. Although Third World orphanages aren't normally festive places, on this day, at this time, there is reason to celebrate: the arrival of a young…
Daily Dose (Dec 30 – Jan 2)
TUESDAY DECEMBER 30 -- This week, our invitation is to embrace soft heartedness, and the gifts it offers—the gifts of compassion, and empathy, and healing.And we take to heart Kate Bowler’s affirmation, “But I think tender heartedness is the ability…
Soft hearted and fully alive
A couple anticipated attending the opening of a new museum exhibit.At the last moment, their childcare plans fell through. They were left with the only option of taking their young daughter, seven years old, with them. They expected that the…
Daily Dose (December 23 – 26)
TUESDAY DECEMBER 23 -- "I now believe that the instruction (dogma) of my childhood—that led me into faith—is not what saved me," my friend tells me. "It was the kindness of my Sunday School teacher; it was when my parents…
Small acts of kindness
I love stories about small acts of kindness. Stories about people who spill the light.Saint Brigid (c.450-523) was an Irish woman who founded a community at Kildare, primarily for women. She grew up marked by her high spirits and tender…