Personal

Information Overload

6 Comments / Current Events, History, Personal / By /

One of the 21st century’s greatest blessings is also its greatest curse. I’m speaking of information technology that has given us the Internet, the World Wide Web, not to mention social networking. It used to be that one found out what was happening in the world by radio broadcast or newspaper. As an aside, one of my all-time favorite museums is the Newseum in Washington, D.C. (next door to the Canadian embassy). Worth the price of admission is the amazing collection on Level 5 called the News Corporation News History Gallery. This display covers more than 500 years of news […]

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Unspeakable Sadness

3 Comments / 221st General Assembly (2014), Current Events, Death & Dying, Lung Cancer, PCUSA, Personal, Theological Reflection / By /

Going back to my original list of reasons for not blogging this summer, today I address the experience of sadness. Several things piled on over time and rendered me still before God, downcast in spirit: • my mother’s death after a sudden and short illness, in early April • the developing news of my friend Steve Hayner’s pancreatic cancer • actions of General Assembly, particularly regarding same-sex marriage • the beheading of innocents at the hands of ISIS • the escalating death toll due to Ebola in West Africa • devastating wildfires in California, at or near some of my

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Breathing Lessons and the Big Contest

2 Comments / Death & Dying, Leadership and Spirituality, Lung Cancer, Personal, Spiritual Disciplines / By /

I celebrated a milestone of sorts today, the last session of a pulmonary rehabilitation class I have been taking to learn how to breathe and manage my air. A group of twelve has met for a total of 36 hours over these last seven weeks, instructed by respiratory therapists, physical therapists, nutritionists, pharmacists, psychotherapists, and doctors. We have been supervised in the gym for a minimum of 1½ hours of tailor-made exercises each class day, and we marked our progress. We are now considered “educated patients” who have learned how to observe our health status and to know when to

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Bible Reading Plans

5 Comments / Personal, Spiritual Disciplines / By /

The best of intentions languish without a plan. My goal is very simple: to read a little bit of Scripture every day and keep acquainted with the whole counsel of God.  To this end, I offer the following recommendations among the many possibilities available these days. All links have been checked today so these are good to go. I start, however, with my favorite because it was devised by one of my favorite people, Dr. Dale Bruner, formerly of Whitworth University and now retired and writing commentaries in Pasadena, California. He sketched this reading plan out on a white-board one

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A Red Flag

5 Comments / Personal, Spiritual Disciplines / By /

Going back to my original list of “why I haven’t been blogging,” today I shall address the last one enumerated there: I have not been “in the Word” as a daily or even regular spiritual discipline. I realize just how much the Scriptures are food for thought, and I haven’t been eating. So, this is really a confession of sorts, but not a self-indulgent one, I hope. My aim is simply to articulate an experience that you may have had, too, and to respond to it. My personal, spiritual disciplines of the traditional kind, especially Bible reading and study, have

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A Voice Crying in the Wilderness

4 Comments / PCUSA, Personal, Theological Reflection / By /

Today I would like to develop further the idea I introduced yesterday of finding one’s voice. Isaiah 40:1-9 has spoken to me lately, and though the topic there is Jerusalem/Zion’s revival after a long season of disruption from Babylonian and Assyrian tyrants, there are parallels to today’s church and the role of prophet therein. The passage begins with words of comfort, indicating to God’s Chosen that the worst of their captivity is over: 1          Comfort, O comfort my people,                         says your God. 2          Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,                         and cry to her             that she has served

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Losing One’s Voice

7 Comments / 221st General Assembly (2014), Lung Cancer, PCUSA, Personal, Uncategorized / By /

One of the interesting, and somewhat disappointing, developments of this summer has been trouble with my breathing apparatus. My lungs check out very well, indeed, but the upper airways (trachea and bronchi) are stiffening. This causes me to wheeze under certain conditions, and if you really listen, you can hear a slight whistle coming from just below my voice box. My radiology oncologist suggests the possibility that last Fall’s radiation treatments are now causing some scarring in those tubes. The matter is being investigated by my medical team, and I’m hoping there might be some sort of definitive treatment to

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I’m Back!

8 Comments / Lung Cancer, Personal / By /

My dear readers, it has been over three months since I last blogged. Some of you have been asking if I am all right, and your concern has touched me and challenged me. Yes, I am just fine! Last week I had the six-month post-op evaluation of my condition, with CT scan and blood work, and I remain “cancer-free.” My strength is back and I have been remarkably busy enjoying life and catching up. Just normal life stuff, vacation, sorting and disbursing my deceased mother’s possessions, ¼-time work, things like that. Only three reminders of my illness remain: 1) the

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Jesus’ Unique Requirements—Part I

1 Comment / 221st General Assembly (2014), Great Commission (Mt 28), Lung Cancer, PCUSA, Personal, The Missional Church / By /

I am in a unique season in my life; I have good news to share with just about anybody who will listen. My glad tidings, as my regular readers know, is that after six months of messing around with a diagnosis of lung cancer and all its treatments (chemo, radiation, and surgery), I am now cancer-free with little expectation that it will come back. Disclosing this part of my story is coming very naturally as I am welcomed back to the grocery store where I have been a regular customer for sixteen years. My hair stylist gave me my first

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Ministry without Power

2 Comments / Leadership and Spirituality, PCUSA, Personal, Spiritual Disciplines, The Pastoral Call / By /

As the church family awaits the celebration of Pentecost on Sunday, I have been reflecting on what it would have been like if the Spirit had not come as promised. From the testimony of the gospels and the book of Acts, we know that the disciples—waiting as instructed for “power from on high”—basically did nothing risky or bold in the interim. Unless you consider the nomination and election of a new elder to fall into that category . . . (see Acts 1:12:26). I have two personal experiences to share that gave me an inkling of what it is like

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