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What Was Jesus Feeling in Gethsemane?

1 Comment / Anxiety, Death & Dying, Lent, Personal / By /

As we move through Holy Week, I am contemplating Jesus’ mental state, on the lookout for anxiety. If I had been in Jesus’ shoes that week, anxiety is what I would have been feeling. But that is only projection from a very human point of view! Letting the Scripture speak for itself, we find a window into the soul of the God-Man Jesus in accounts of his visit to the Garden of Gethsemane. Up to this point, Jesus was handling his emotions well. He has spent the evening with his closest disciples, instructing them, explaining the meaning of upcoming events, […]

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A Different Lens on Holy Week

2 Comments / Anxiety, Lent, Lung Cancer, Personal / By /

Today’s entry is one more context-setting blog, and then I think tomorrow I can start in on some Holy Week reflections. One of the more interesting ministry directions I have taken in the last year and a half is to involve myself helping people who suffer from lung disease (sometimes cancer, but more likely asthma, COPD, or emphysema). When I was diagnosed with lung cancer in the fall of 2013, I was introduced to a new community of “my people,” those for whom breathing is an appreciated gift and intentional effort. Part of my recovery in 2014 required me to

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Making a Joyful Noise to the Lord

6 Comments / Death & Dying, Personal, Spiritual Disciplines / By /

Hello faithful readers, I am taking a blogging break for the month of June to accommodate the intense concentration required to prepare and sing several choral concerts this month. It’s a spiritual discipline of another sort. I am in the middle of final rehearsals this week, in anticipation of two “bon voyage” performances this weekend in Seattle. After a week’s break, I head to Frankfurt with the Northwest Firelight Chorale, to visit and perform in the Rhein Valley and Cologne in Germany and points west in Alsace and Burgundy France. Crazy, I know. My 62-year-old brain is in overdrive memorizing eighteen pieces,

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What Helps When I Feel Overwhelmed?

1 Comment / Personal, Spiritual Disciplines, Turkey / By /

Technically speaking, I am unemployed. All that means is that the work I do is self-directed and without remuneration. Working at home, alone, usually means work without encouragement or even accountability. My admiration for the world’s great writers grows by the day, as I appreciate more fully the inner perseverance needed for literary productivity. My big issue now is that there are too many other things to do besides writing, each requiring intense concentration until finished—the kind that pushes all other priorities to the margins. Memorizing a lot of music really fast. My husband and I are participating in a

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Colossians 4: A Little Field Trip to Turkey

3 Comments / Colossians, Personal, Uncategorized / By /

Tomorrow morning I am heading to Istanbul to begin a two week tour of western Turkey and Greece with Fuller Seminary alumni and professors. I have been focused on preparation of mind, body, and spirit as well as packing. As of today, my body is on Istanbul time so that I can “hit the ground running” upon arrival in that great city first thing in the morning Friday.  Now that the packing is all done, I turn to Colossians 4 and realize I can do a much better job of bringing it to life it after my trip! So I

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Colossians 4:2-6: Stay Awake! Keep Praying!

2 Comments / Colossians, Current Events, Leadership and Spirituality, Lung Cancer, Marriage Definition, Personal, Spiritual Disciplines, The Church in Exile, Uncategorized / By /

2Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. 3And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. 4Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. 5Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. 6Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt so that you may know how to answer everyone. I have been a morning person my whole life. In the evenings we have a family rule, “No

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Observations of a Newborn

1 Comment / Grandparenting, Personal / By /

It is good to be back with you again after a little break. Midday on Friday, March 13, we got the call that our daughter Katy had started labor. By three o’clock we were on the road in our 24-foot sprinter van RV, packed and equipped for a week-long stay. After an overnight in Oregon, we arrived at Swedish Hospital in Seattle to meet our first grandchild, a girl named Eleanor (Elly), less than eleven hours after her birth. I do not want to resort to clichés about her beauty, perfection, cuteness, or any other accolade attributed to newborns. She

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I’m Going to Be a Grandma

3 Comments / Personal / By /

Just got word that our older daughter has started labor, so the birth of our first grandchild is imminent. I have been rooting for Pi Day all week; could we be so fortunate? If this goes long enough, we will have a “once in a century” baby! While doing Nana duty, I will be working with my other daughter, who is first round editor of my book, Slaying the Beast: A Spiritual Journal Through Lung Cancer, which I “finished” (ha-ha) yesterday.  We will be working on it for two weeks, so during that time you will not be hearing from

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Colossians 1–3: Apprenticeship to Jesus

3 Comments / Colossians, Marriage Curriculum, Personal, Uncategorized / By /

Colossians 4:1 is a good place to pause for a bit of a review in our study of Paul’s letter to the Colossians. After a splendid introduction to Jesus Christ— his primacy, his deity, and his presence—Paul makes the case in chapter 2 that Christians enjoy a particular freedom. This liberty is not license to do whatever one pleases, but practical freedom from human regulations (like the Jewish Law) and secular humanistic philosophies. Life in Christ gives a person the opportunity to enjoy the freedom to do good without the lead weight of counterfeit wisdom or spiritual OCD (2:23). A

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Colossians 3:20-21: Family Lessons

1 Comment / Church, Colossians, Marriage Curriculum, Personal / By /

20Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. 21Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged. Remembering that these two verses follow Paul’s exhortation to the church as a whole, it is a wonderful thing the apostle recognizes: children are a part of the church family, too. Previously, husband and wife were urged to demonstrate to each other the quality of relationship that is to pervade the church. Here, too, we see that children (and their parents) have a special responsibility even as they are given the privilege of participation in the household of

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