CategoriesSeasonal, Spiritual Conversation by

Dayenu: A Spiritual Practice of Gratitude

 A devotional reflection on Isaiah 43

Sung or chanted each year around Jewish Passover tables, Dayenu (pronounced die-YAY-noo or DIE-yenu) carries a depth of spiritual wisdom many Christians might miss. It means simply: It would have been enough.

  • If God had only brought us out of Egypt, but not split the sea: Dayenu.
  • If God had only split the sea, but not let us through on dry ground: Dayenu.
  • If God had only let us through, but not sustained us in the wilderness: Dayenu.

This litany, sung with joy, rising rhythm, and often laughter, is more than a historical rehearsal. It is a spiritual declaration. We live not by entitlement, but by grace. And grace is Dayenu, always more than enough. Read More

CategoriesEquipping, Seasonal by

A Lenten Rule of Life

Practices for Paying Attention to God

Through The Journey and A Way of Life processes, many have experienced what it’s like to be given a template for our energy toward God to wrap itself around—a shared rhythm of weekly gatherings, Scripture, prayer, reflection, and honest conversation. Over time, these practices become a kind of scaffolding for our longings: a way to channel our desire to know God, live attentively, and participate more faithfully in what God is already doing in our lives and communities.

As Dallas Willard once described it, this kind of formation becomes a curriculum for Christlikeness—not something rigid, but a simple structure that supports who we are becoming.

Spiritual director Adele Ahlberg Calhoun reminds us that a rule of life is “a simple statement of the regular rhythms we choose in order to present our bodies to God as our ‘spiritual act of worship.’” These rhythms aren’t burdensome checklists. They’re realistic, life-giving practices that keep our lives from drifting into unintended chaos and help us partner with God in the transformation only He can bring.

With Lent inviting us again to slow down and pay attention, Keith Anderson offers a thoughtful reflection on crafting a Lenten rule of life—one shaped not by striving, but by fasting, prayer, and generosity as gentle ways of becoming more present to God. Read More

CategoriesSeasonal by

Ashes to Go

Seeing with Fresh Eyes

It was an early Wednesday morning, and I was hurrying—almost running—to catch the ferry from Bainbridge Island to Seattle. The terminal felt especially busy that day, crowded with people moving at practiced speed, the way overachievers do, intent on finding their preferred seat or joining their familiar cluster of friends for the thirty-five-minute crossing over the eight miles of Puget Sound.

 

I wasn’t paying attention to anyone. I was distracted—preoccupied in the way a graduate school president often is—lost in my own thoughts, unaware that this was not just any Wednesday. This was a holy day in the life of the Church. 

 

As I reached the edge of the terminal building, I saw him.

 

There stood my pastor—our vicar, Father Dennis—vested as he would later be that afternoon in the sanctuary of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church. I had never seen him on the ferry commute before. Then I noticed the sign placed deliberately at his small station near the flow of foot traffic: “Ashes to go.”

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CategoriesSeasonal, VP3 happenings by

Paul’s Challenge, Our Prayer

A Challenge

 

You then, my child, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus; 

and what you have heard from me through many witnesses 

entrust to faithful people who will be able to teach others as well.

2 Timothy 2:1-2 

 

I am mindful, as one year ends and another begins, that we, as a VantagePoint3 (VP3) community, continue to live and grow and serve in the wake of Paul’s threefold encouragement in 2 Timothy 2:1-2. Paul exhorts a younger leader, Timothy, to: 

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CategoriesJesus' Way, Seasonal by

“Immanuel is not just a Christmas story.”

A Ministry Refresh and a Season of Reflection

Over the past 18 months, we have been working to refresh our ministry’s signature offering – The Journey process. We love how it has turned out. It has now been about three weeks since the refreshing, rewriting, and formatting have all stopped, and The Journey Stage 3: A Shared Life is off to the printer. Cheers! 

 

Since then, I have begun reflecting on what we have been learning along the way as we worked on this project. And perhaps, because the timing of this reflecting coincides with the weeks of Advent and the anticipation of Christmas, my initial thoughts have mostly landed on this theme—embracing God with us, Immanuel, is at the center of our ongoing, lifelong formation in Christ as individuals and communities.  

 

A compelling way to look at God’s character and mission is to notice a defining thread woven through the entire biblical Story–God desires to be with his people. From the garden of Eden to the Tabernacle and the Temple to the Incarnation of Jesus to the new heavens and new earth, the Triune God seeks to dwell among his people (e.g., Gen 2-3; Ex. 29:45-46; Lev. 26:11-12; 2 Chr. 6:18; Ps. 90:1; John 1:14, Rev 21:1-5).   Read More

CategoriesSeasonal by

Just a Moment at the Door

A Soliloquy

It has been years now, but I can still hear the knock.
That single, hurried knock upon my door—
the sound of it still splits the silence of my sleep.
The city was crowded that night, Bethlehem bursting like a wineskin.
Every corner filled, every room claimed by those come to be counted.
And me? I was proud of it.
A full house means full hands, full pockets, a full purse.
As an innkeeper—well, I thought myself fortunate.

 

But then came the knock.

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CategoriesSeasonal by

Home for Christmas

“I’ll be home for Christmas.”

There’s a hush to those words, isn’t there? They hold a gentle ache, a tender longing. Every December, when papers are graded, the last emails are sent, and the house finally falls quiet, we hear it again and again — ‘Are you going home for Christmas?‘

That question is so simple.
And yet it opens a door into a deeper hunger inside us.

A hunger for a home where we belong.
A home that feels safe and warm.
A home where we can breathe, be ourselves, and know we’re loved. Read More

CategoriesSeasonal, Spiritual Conversation by

The Surprise of Advent

—Psalm 146, Revelation 1:1–8

The surprise of Advent is not that Messiah comes—but where He comes, and what He comes to do.

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.” (Revelation 1:8)

As a child, I imagined that Almighty One as enormous and untouchable—robed in fire, seated on a throne somewhere above the stars. Holy and distant. Fearsome and vast. But the psalmist paints a different portrait of the One for whom we wait. Read More

CategoriesPreparing Your Heart, Seasonal by

Making Space for God

I love a clear kitchen counter. A clutter-free table. Surfaces clean. No visual chaos. 

Before a meal, before a conversation, before a group gathers—these small acts of preparation say something meaningful is about to happen here. This I savor. 

As we pause this Thanksgiving week, the clear, expectant table feels especially right. Gratitude itself is a way of making space—of remembering, noticing, and preparing our hearts for what God is doing among us. Read More

CategoriesSeasonal, Theology and Spirituality by

Easter Sunday

I’ve been to Jerusalem where I saw what some traditions believe was the place of Jesus’ birth and nearby to where they think he was buried. Lots of gold, jewels, silver, and a certain kind of beauty. But I’ve also seen places “off the beaten path” where others imagined birth and burial: I am moved by those places. No gold, jewels, silver, or “glory,”  just terra firma under our feet. We know the stable pictures of the Nativity and we can imagine a huge round stone in front of a cave-like tomb on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Read More