I’ve always needed Lent in a personal way. I have a tendency to fill my plate to overflowing—drawn to every flavour and texture and combination. Wanting to savour every bit, but also rushing to the next so quickly that the richness of each is often compromised…
I was a confident, if not brazen young adult. I had my opinions and was certain that they were well thought out, informed, learned, and intelligent conclusions. More than once I had someone more aged than I say to me “when you are older you will think differently.” I dismissed their notion as pretentious…
There are many potential roles a pastor takes on, both within the context of church and extending out into the community…
When my church’s worship leaders met a few weeks ago to prepare for our Lent worship series someone jokingly mused, “The pandemic experience of the past year has already demanded that we give up so much. Do we really need to adopt the practice of giving up something for Lent in 2021?”
Today, across the globe, Christians from around the world join together to celebrate this unique Holy Day known as Ash Wednesday…
Here we are at the end of Lent and Holy Week. And, I don’t know about you, but this has been a very strange season….
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Has there been such a time as this, where the whole world is halted by an invisible force? School, businesses, sports events, entertainment and malls have all come to a close. There are so many fears, concerns and uncertainties….
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This isn’t what I intended to write….
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“Go ahead,” my friend Ernie said to me, “choose any one you would like.” I looked down into the plastic container that he held in front of me while admiring the many small wooden crosses he had crafted….
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Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for people to humble themselves?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?….
The thought of adding something to my calendar heightens my anxiety. Lately, I’ve actually been doing an okay job of saying “no” to additional things. But even then I’m still maxed out….
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Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the season of Lent. And in many traditions, Ash Wednesday is marked with a worship service where people come forward to receive the sign of the cross in ashes on their foreheads and they hear the words “From dust you came and to dust you shall return.”…
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The point of the Lenten season is to prepare us spiritually for the events of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday. These three days are the pinnacle of the Christian calendar. They point us each year to the God
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God, it was awful.I don’t know if you were there, don’t know if you care or how you’d react if you were. As for me, let me just say it again to be clear: it’s nothing if not an awful, God-forsaken mess.
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I write this with tears because I’m so grieved. I’m heartbroken. I can’t fully explain it but it feels like there are a million pounds of pressure on my chest and I’m having a hard time breathing. The weight of your stubbornness is going to kill me but it’s going to destroy you.
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One of the more soothing therapies my wife and I have turned to in an effort to survive this particularly brutal winter is Netflix. In recent weeks it’s not been uncommon for our days to wind down in front of a roaring fireplace,
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