Tonight, Janet and I watched a video recording of the memorial service of a friend... the wife in a couple I've known and served as donors for over 30 years. She died at home in upstate New York though her memorial was in Chicago, where they’d lived for many years. There was a beautiful diversity … Continue reading Bearing Witness

We arrived late at our Episcopal church, just as the procession was starting. On this Easter Sunday, this meant that the only open seats were on the front row of the side chapel. What we didn’t expect is that we’d have the best seats in the house. About five feet away, off the end of … Continue reading For All Who Are Thirsty

I wrote yesterday about "a Good Friday kind of love", that perhaps sacrificial love is the only love that can save the world. Today I share a story which to me is an example of living that kind of love... My New Hero Last year (2011), I wrote a meditation for Holy Saturday but never … Continue reading My New Hero

Events move quickly now. By noon, he'll be heading up the hill to Golgotha, the “Place of the Skull.” The outlines of the plot have been hatched under cover of darkness by men convincing each other that they've seen these troublemakers and fake-messiah/insurrectionists before. We need to protect the nation from Rome crushing us all … Continue reading A Good Friday Kind of Love

I appreciate dreary weather on Good Friday: it fits the solemnity of the day. But this year (2008) it's a Chamber of Commerce day for So Cal, and I'm enjoying warm sun at St. Michael's Abbey, just five miles from my home. I attended a short midday service chanted by the monks and then walked … Continue reading Into Your Courts I Come

There's a well-known Rembrandt sketch I sometimes ponder during the Lenten season. Rembrandt’s "Three Crosses" (see it here) portrays a crowded and chaotic crucifixion scene. Blending into the crowd under the crosses on the hill is a Renaissance-looking man, purported to be either the artist himself or the patron of the painting (often done in religious … Continue reading Under the Cross

Stan Mooneyham, former leader of World Vision International, tells a story* of Toyohiko Kagawa, a Japanese Christian who had spent his life working with and for the poor. He “was speaking at Princeton. When he finished his talk, one student said to another, ‘He didn’t say much, did he?’ A woman sitting nearby leaned over and … Continue reading When You’re Hanging on a Cross

Dear Reader: I've collected some previous Lenten meditations  to send out during this Holy Week. I hope they are a meaningful addition to your reflections in this special season. I start with one that has special significance today, as we are returning in an hour from Phoenix--just as we were the day we got the call … Continue reading Passion

Thanksgiving Day 2016 found my wife Janet and me in a prehistoric crater in Tanzania. I’d been hosting several families as we visited World Vision projects earlier in the week. Then on Wednesday evening we traveled to Ngorogoro Crater and checked into a lovely lodge where we would have our team debrief later the next … Continue reading Give Thanks with a Grateful Heart

Ever have an experience where you've heard something multiple times, but suddenly it strikes you at a deeper level and you don't know why? That happened to me this week. Some passionate World Vision supporters invited their friends to hear Dr. Vinh Chung and his wife Leisle tell their story. Vinh has a powerful testimony … Continue reading Born on Third Base