I'm sitting in the side chapel at St. John Chrysostom church, where Janet and I are spending a reflective hour as part of the Good Friday prayer vigil. Earlier this morning I read a meditation for Holy Saturday which I'd written last year but never sent out. It was concerning an attack on World Vision's … Continue reading My New Hero

This past week, I experienced a real gut check. Mark Feiner, the new but fantastically competent conductor of our South County Sound barbershop chorus, died in his sleep at age 55 over the weekend. We were all shocked. We met as a chorus the next Tuesday night, to honor and talk about Mark and his … Continue reading Gut Checks

A couple weeks ago while on a plane headed for Ethiopia, I was thinking and writing about Ethiopia's forlorn neighbor, Somalia. The UN had just officially declared an "end" to the famine conditions there.Last summer, the UN had slapped the "Famine" label on Somalia, declaring this the first major African famine since the Ethiopia/Sudan famine … Continue reading Building Altars

Friends,I think this meditation deserves a repeat-performance. It's a lovely story about Lilly and how her mom taught her a bit about malaria, and compassion. I was with Lilly and her folks recently and brought her an actual malaria net, like we use in Africa. She's a busy 7-year-old now and couldn't remember the entire … Continue reading A Little Child Shall Lead Them

Last night Janet and I watched a recording of a recent World Vision weekly chapel service. It started with a faded documentary-style video, circa 1979, chronicling a dramatic moment when World Vision’s ship Seasweep rescued a floundering vessel crammed with Vietnamese boat people. One four-year-old boy who was on that boat that day …then stood … Continue reading The Rest of the Story

Deeper Than BeautyI recently presented one of our supporters with a piece of original artwork, World Vision style. It was a lovely depiction of what appeared to be a peaceful village scene from rural Bangladesh, drawn by a Bangladeshi child… Jim and I admired it together, wondering about the couple sitting on the ground in … Continue reading Deeper Than Beauty

Janet and I adore being grandparents. Six months ago we were blessed with our fifth grandchild, and the first in 12 years. What a delight it is to celebrate each new adventure, each new wonder, each new victory for Laith. (His name rhymes with "faith" and is Arabic for "lion"—so of course Grandma feels compelled … Continue reading Looking Up From Down Below

This weekend, the futon in our guest room celebrates its tenth birthday with us. I don’t usually remember when we bought furniture, but this was one of those high-charged experiences when a confusing parable suddenly becomes clear—and you suddenly know what you need to do to obey it.It was the Saturday after the September 11 … Continue reading Making Friends

I was privileged to be at Ground Zero in New York City on the first anniversary of 9/11. I looked down on that empty place where the Twin Towers had last stood so proudly one year earlier. And now as I looked at the bare hole, that ground truly was zero, nothing but a gaping … Continue reading Clues in the Rubble — Reflection on 9/11/11

Early in 2010, my focus shifted somewhat toward compiling meditations for a book (Reflections from Afar--info on ordering it is below).Because of this, I quit or forgot to post the subsequent meditations on this blogsite for well over a year. Some of them are in "Reflections", but the best of the other ones were missing. … Continue reading First, an apology