Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. – Matthew 11:28 The winter rains have begun, and the grapevines have dropped their leaves. Only a few yellow, orange, and red stragglers remain, catching the watery afternoon sun, like tiny stained-glass windows. All the work for the season … Read More
Advent is the Christian season in which we wait expectantly for the Lord. While the weeks leading up to Christmas can be busy and loud, remembering Advent encourages us to be still and wait on God. This is the second of four posts on Advent, each focusing on one of the season’s four traditional themes … Read More
Mothers know what sacrifice means. No one else in this world is asked to give of themselves more wholly to another person than a mother. She gives her body, time, autonomy, attention, food, energy, and life to this little baby being. And after a few short years, she is asked to let go of the … Read More
Advent is the Christian season in which we wait expectantly for the Lord. While the weeks leading up to Christmas can be busy and loud, remembering Advent encourages us to be still and wait on God. This is the second of four posts on Advent, each focusing on one of the season’s four traditional themes … Read More
Advent is the Christian season in which we wait expectantly for the Lord. While the weeks leading up to Christmas can be busy and loud, remembering Advent encourages us to be still and wait on God. This is the second of four posts on Advent, each focusing on one of the season’s four traditional themes … Read More
Jeff Reed is a pastor and poet located in the Bay Area. He is the author of a number of works, including Estuarial (2014), which is a collection of poems which pair people of wildly different vocations with one another. I interviewed him about what was behind the book and his own thoughts and experiences … Read More
Advent is the Christian season in which we wait expectantly for the Lord. While the weeks leading up to Christmas can be busy and loud, remembering Advent encourages us to be still and wait on God. This is the first of four posts on Advent, each focusing on one of the season’s four traditional themes … Read More
Bob Matsushima never felt a calling to a particular career path. “I think my journey started off with avoidance rather than a desired goal… I had no idea what I wanted to do,” he says. Retired now, Bob recounts his life to this point with a smile, grateful for the fullness of it. After he … Read More
Near the start of his ministry, Jesus proclaimed at the synagogue in Nazareth that he was the one, foretold in Isaiah 61, who would set the oppressed free (Luke 4:14-28). In doing so, Jesus announced that a central aim of his ministry would be leveling social hierarchies in which some people were favored over others. … Read More
Ephesians 5:20 reveals that, once filled with the Spirit, we should be “always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” This verse sparks several questions: 1) How can we give thanks “always”? That seems impossible. 2) Should we really thank God for “everything”? Really? 3) Does … Read More