Waiting For a Heart Transplant The ultrasound tech stopped me as he was leaving the ICU. “I’d be careful with him,” he said, “otherwise you’re going to have a cardiac arrest on your hands.” He paused to give me a disappointed grimace, “his ejection fraction is less than 5%.” One of the ICU nurses leaned… Continue reading Awaiting a New Heart – Advent Reflections
Shaken National headlines in July 2023 brought heart-wrenching news to the small congregation I grew up in. Horrifying, long-hidden evils came to light about a man who had led our congregation in worship for much of my childhood. Nearly half a century too late, this former pastor confessed to kidnapping and murdering a young girl… Continue reading When Church Leaders Fall, the Gospel Remains Steady
“My Hills” From the back corner of my family’s farm there is a completely unhindered view of a glorious cascade of hills. I claimed those hills as “my own” years ago; although they only seem like “mine” when they are viewed from the perspective of the Sacramento Valley, and particularly at an approximate distance of… Continue reading I Lift Up My Eyes to the Hills
Forgotten Grace In a moment’s breath a sudden wind had swept over the eastern mountains and dropped swiftly into the valley below. And as this unexpected chill collided with the warmth of the glassy sea surface, it spit a fierce and vengeful wrath upon one tiny boat’s inhabitants. They were already shrouded fearfully in night’s… Continue reading Grace For Today
We spent an evening earlier this week wrapped up in one of those good old 5-hour-long family business discussions…you know the type—where there’s more raised voices than calm compromises and you begin to wonder how we ever got along as a family. Not nearly the example of Christmas family cheer painted on postcards and sprinkled… Continue reading Bee Boxes Behind the Christmas Tree and a Baby in the Manger
In a flurry of Thanksgiving preparations, I’m juggling an overflowing bowl of bread crumbs in one hand and sautéing onions and celery on the stove with the other. And sitting in front of me is a rather tearful mother, choking back bits of frustration between sobs. As I look up at her I realize it’s… Continue reading My Redeemer Lives: Thanksgiving Even in Suffering
Under different circumstances I may have enjoyed the view. The darkening sky silhouetted the rocky plateau upon which the city rests and the hills beyond dipped in and out of the skyline in tranquil fashion. Though I am barely able to lift my chin, when my eyes are posted straight ahead I can make out… Continue reading The Face of the Penitent Thief
My earliest memory of a pet dying was my speckled hen who lived in the coop behind our old house. There have been so many since then…the first bottle lamb, Chucky, when his stomach grew fat and swollen; Hip-Hop Peep. the one-legged chicken we buried under the pine trees with a wooden grave marker that… Continue reading Beauty in the Suffocating Lamb
As we left the young couple in the room behind us, the physician turned to me and said “they actually seemed pretty normal.” I laughed to myself, because it was true, that in comparison to most of the patients we see on a daily basis in the Emergency Department, this little family did seem strangely… Continue reading A Waiting Room of Un-normal People
Sometimes I chuckle to myself as I am getting Mom dressed in the morning. I lean in close, with a sideways smirk on my face, and tell her (only half-jokingly) that she is my baby. She nods her head in agreement, and she can’t help but grin too, because she knows it’s true. I was… Continue reading Being Mom’s “Mom”
Proverbs 19:21 