It was a Sunday near Martin Luther King Jr. day, my senior year of college, and I was visiting a church I had never attended before with two of my roommates. Near the close of the service, we sang a stirring and unfamiliar song. At the bottom of the music, I read, “African-American National Anthem.” […]
- Home
- faith (Page 15)
A Different Sort of Wednesday
While studying late one evening at the English Faculty Library during the term I spent studying in Oxford, the toll of church bells began to invade my absorption in the texts. I was used to their pealing from the medieval churches all over this “city of dreaming spires” on Sunday mornings, but not on a […]
His Faithfulness
My dad gave the cue. The lights in the little theater went down. My mom opened the backstage door, and she and I sent fifteen kids and teens in blue shirts and cowboy hats filing out onstage. As the first notes of “Oklahoma!” rang out, I closed my eyes and pressed my fingertips together. Thank […]
What is it about a story? (Part 2)
Read Part 1 here. Some might say we love stories because they offer escape, a brief trip out of a meaningless and messed-up world into one that makes more sense. Certainly stories can be a form of escape—I know I’ve used them as such. But the best stories, the good and true ones (even if […]
No Matter How Small
In the musical Seussical, one version of which our little theater company performed this summer, Horton the Elephant fights to save the tiny people on the miniscule planet of Who, so small that no one but Horton, the only one who can hear the Whos’ voices, believes it even exists atop his clover. During the […]
What is it about a story? (Part 1)
I recently read an article in Guideposts magazine where the author shared the impact the movie Doctor Zhivago had on her as a young girl. Times were tight for her family, and she and her mom both worked at the local movie theater. After seeing a late showing of this particular film, for the remainder […]
Christmas is Past…
“Now Christmas is pastTwelfth Night is the last…”~Robert Herrick, 17th century English poet My family likes to leave our Christmas decorations up through Epiphany, today’s observance of the Wise Men’s visit that coincides with old English Twelfth Night. I’m glad there is a traditional and liturgical reason for lingering this precious season, for it is […]
And a Happy New Year…
“Fast away the old year passes, FalalalalalalalalaHail the new, ye lads and lasses, Falalalalalalalala…” My critique partners and I have been chatting about New Year’s resolutions, goals, or hopes this past week. It hasn’t been something I’ve usually done, picking a particular aim for a new year…I’m not sure if it’s more because I’ve learned […]
Toward Bethlehem, Part 5
Lo, how a rose ere bloomingFrom tender stem hath sprungOf Jesse’s lineage comingAs men of old have sung… ElizabethMary and Joseph sup with us this night. We laugh and chat and eat as if Caesar were not turning the entire province upside down with this census. At least the rest of us eat; Mary picks […]
Toward Bethlehem, Part 4
Come, Thou long-expected JesusBorn to set Thy people freeFrom our fears and sins release usLet us find our rest in Thee… Joseph Evening light glints on the soldiers’ helmets as they disappear in a cloud of dust. I stare after them. Lord, if I’d known you meant literally for the Messiah to be born in […]