• Key themes for the Advent season include expectancy and expectations. Mario Albertinelli's The Visitation captures the one and leads us to reflect on the other. As you observe Mary and Elizabeth, in this poignant depiction of the narrative found in Luke 1 - perhaps you can anticipate the senses of expectancy and expectation that both women carry. Reflections on Mary and Elizabeth Consider, that both women are pregnant for the first time - Mary in her young age as a virgin and Elizabeth in her old age as one who has been barren. Both women have been divinely told that they will have sons. Both women have been given a glimpse of their son's future. Both women are alone - Mary

    Dec 14,
  •  “I will heal their waywardness    and love them freely,    for my anger has turned away from them." - The Lord speaking through Hosea to Israel, Hosea 14:4 The words of the prophet Hosea were poignantly delivered to me in the form of a ministry charge during my ordination service. It is a powerful charge - heal their waywardness and love them freely. The two-pronged charge has become a guardrail in terms of my ministry as pastor and as chaplain. First, to heal their waywardness speaks to one of the most foundational functions of the pastoral office - healing. How does one heal waywardness? Some of the people that I encounter in ministry don't even know that they are sick or in need of healing - sure they

    Nov 30,
  • During seminary, I recall a particular moment when I was contemplating what future ministry would look like: one scenario, meant fundraising for salary and ministry to work with the Colorado Rapids as chaplain; the other scenario, meant working and doing the chaplaincy within the "margins" of life and work. As I relayed my fear and aversion of trying to raise money to my best friend, he simply said, "Oh, you must be an Ezra." His statement caught me off-guard and I begged an elaboration. He proceeded to share that in looking at different personality types, it had been helpful for him to compare the contemporaries of Ezra and Nehemiah. Both men of God, they both made a return to Jerusalem in

    Sep 14,

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