Stories that help you
Live the Resurrection

I realize that I’m feeling now like I felt in the first few days of the pandemic: helplessly facing something deadly. Maybe that’s why...

We’ve hosted the holidays for our family/friend group for eighteen years. All the holidays, every year.  We enjoyed it and had the house...

No one is eating anyone’s pets; we’re consuming each other instead.   There are calls from both sides to tone down the rhetoric, however,...

“We are racist.” The words came out as both realization and confession. Courtney was reacting to a conversation I was facilitating about...

Somethings are timely because they have a deadline. The sermon is due Sunday morning, ready or not-it’s time! For me, the moving van is...

What to take with us, what to leave behind. How do we decide? You may remember that my husband and I are at the beginning of a move that...

As we sat on the deck of my dear friend’s home on Whidbey Island, over-looking the Sound, we talked about “tiptoeing toward retirement.” ...

By Rev. Michael Girlinghouse The social ministry committee of a large, suburban church stood before their council to propose adopting and...

“We tried that already. It didn’t work.” I don’t like hearing that. But it’s worse when I don’t hear it, when I just see their eyes roll,...

The family service was over, the next two services had a different tone and a different sermon. The windows next to the parking lot were...

“We need to get back to Jesus. Just Jesus” the bishop* proclaimed. The singer had just finished a rousing version of “Give me Jesus!” ...

On the sabbath day we went outside the gate by the river, where we supposed there was a place of prayer; and we sat down and spoke to the...

There once was a frustrated, alienated woman who had just enough hope to enter a forbidden place and reach out for a chance at healing....

My son disagrees with my doctor. I made the mistake of telling my microbiologist/immunologist son about my latest physical. I like my...

“I don’t understand it! They said they wanted to change!” I was in the middle of a conversation with a frustrated pastor in the third...

My Dad bought a remote-controlled TV the moment they came out. It wasn’t that he was too lazy to get off the couch to change the...

What happens when a favorite pottery bowl breaks? In the states, we often feel sad and throw it away. In Japan, they use gold to bind...

When Joan, my mother-in-law, turned 90 she decided to say “yes” to any invitation. We invited her to go boogie boarding, and she...

Remember? It was March 12, 2020, for me. I was in Los Angeles having coffee with a friend, but a couple of things were odd. I picked up...

There’s a song we keep singing. It doesn’t rhyme and sounds a bit whiny. The chorus goes like this: We put it in the newsletter and...