The new era or the same old world: “Downton Abbey” speaks to past and present
While the world of "Downton Abbey: A New Era" may seem distant from our time, we find its varied narrative threads speaking to us as the characters learn to live in the present, deal with the past, and enter the future.
Begin retirement with a Year of Jubilee
For the ancient Hebrews, the year of Jubilee was not meant to be a long planning session for the future, nor a long break only to return to the past. It was to make them holy. They were different. Their world was different. When retirement comes, take a Year of Jubilee.
The pleasures of routine—even in prayer
There can be a lot of “should” in the spiritual life—I should pray more, go back to in-person worship, read the Bible more. What it would be like to make pleasure rather than duty one of the motives for spiritual practice? What spiritual activities do you enjoy, and can you do more of them? Can you make a routine of them?
Halting climate change—What faith communities can do
The right and the left are currently battling it out over cultural issues and are distracted from the most pressing issue of our era, the climate crisis.
He had found the ring, and I could not stop crying
When I recently lost a treasured ring, I realized I have a tenuous relationship with hope – the belief that things can change, that I can change, that the messages we believe of ourselves and our world can be changed.