CategoriesSpiritual Conversation by

Saturday, We Made Bread

I grew up in a bread-making home. Five children all raised on thick, dark Limpa bread—rye flour, molasses, brown sugar, fennel seeds (my favorite), and little bags of Fleischman’s yeast. What Jesus called leaven makes the dough rise, giving it texture, flavor, and that beautiful dark bread I love to this day.

 

Small kitchens with five children running in and out to smell the dough and the baking bread. A familiar old family cloth covered the recipe as it was rising. My job was to take the large wooden spoon and stir 5 ½ pounds of flour to make yeasty dough in the largest green Tupperware bowl ever made.

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CategoriesSpiritual Conversation by

The Fire and the Flood

In two conversations this past week, a gripping response was present: fear. Two disasters grip us—fire and flood. Both are unrelenting forces, overwhelming when they come upon us, but also haunting metaphors for the inner storms that scorch and drown our souls. Fear, anxiety, grief, sorrow, loss—these are the floods that rise, the flames that burn within.

If I asked you, “What is the most repeated command in all of Scripture?” what would you answer? Love? Obey? Believe? No—the steady refrain of heaven is: Do not be afraid. Some even suggest there are 365 versions of this command—one for every day of the year. Read More

CategoriesMentoring Matters by

Life Upon Life: Why Spiritual Mentoring Matters

This Fall, we will be hosting a short and sweet Mentor’s Workshop for anyone interested in sharpening their skills or preparing to mentor someone for the first time. For me, I am always and forever a student in the mentoring ways of Jesus. 

Listening to how Keith Anderson, Rob Loane, and I think about the importance of spiritual mentoring, frankly, jazzes me up. And perhaps, these excerpts from A Mentoring Guide: Christ. Conversation. Companionship will remind you as well that spiritual mentoring matters. 

The gospel plays out best in relationships. We believe this is absolutely true. It is in close relationships with others where we begin to see how Christ is actually, specifically, beautifully active in the fabric of our everyday lives. In the sadness and celebration, the betrayal and forgiveness, the division and unity, in the beauty and the muddle of our lives, we discover together the Spirit’s relentlessly creative activity.

 

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When Scripture Reads Like Ink Instead of Fire

If you’re like me, there are times in your life when Scripture felt like it leapt from the page straight into my soul, prayers felt immediately heard, and worship stirred my heart, emotions, and mind. But let’s be honest. There are days when Scripture feels like ink instead of fire, when God feels silent and distant.

When Discouragement Creeps In

Usually, I hear or read words that discourage rather than comfort or console:

  • “If you don’t hear God’s voice, guess who isn’t listening?”
  • “If you don’t sense God’s touch this day, whose fault is that?”
  • “If God doesn’t seem to feel close, guess who moved?”

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CategoriesMentoring Matters by

When your instinct is to explain

When Jesus Chose Not to Explain

Mentoring like Jesus reminds us that he not only preached, taught, and explained—he sometimes resisted the instinct to explain. I know the feeling too well.  

 

My urge is to speak, to fill the silence, to provide my answer to their “problem,” to tell them how it worked for me.  As a rabbi, Jesus’ goal was seldom informational. More often, it was formative and especially transformational.

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