(I’m happy to introduce my youngest daughter, Holly Dahlstrom, to you. Her joy, courage, and love of people inspire me. Her capacity to hear God’s voice and follow is a reminder to us all that “a better story” awaits, if we’ll but listen for the voice of our Maker and follow. You can follow all [...]
Archive for the ‘exhaling’ Category
10 Jun
Brownie Points: Colorful considerations of race, class, and community
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. —Plato It’s true. It’s also true that the ‘everyone’ of whom Plato is speaking includes me, and you, and each of us. This makes his admonition all the more challenging because there are two edges to it: be kind…right in the midst of fighting [...]
7 Jun
Skinny Church – the wrong fast for a hungry world
If nutrition is a hobby of yours, then you know that something as simple and straightforward as eating food has dozens of conflicting schools of thought. Macrobiotic people swear by rice and seaweed. Paleolithic people think rice, and most agriculture for that matter, is from the devil himself. Vegetarians think meat eaters are cruelly killing [...]
26 May
The rest of the story—and a way to share it
Yes. Of course. Westboro Baptist church is planning a protest for President Obama’s visit to Joplin, Mo., to inflict a little hate and misery, in Jesus’ name. That the rapture didn’t happen this past Saturday was in the news as much as if it had happened. And people are still debating whether Rob Bell is [...]
24 May
California, meet Rwanda – and learn about justice, reconciliation, and prisons
In a culture characterized by high unemployment, isolation, mind-numbing addictive drugs, and ready access to weapons, it’s no surprise that prison populations are swelling. But our response to the inevitable overcrowding is, just possibly, a moment when we can take pause and learn from others. The lessons we’ll discover are important, not just for prisoners [...]
10 May
Why now? Why hope? Why colors? Why art?
I just returned from an inspiring afternoon with a few hundred people, interacting around the topics of the gospel and social justice, and I wanted to take a moment and share why I’m so passionate about this topic, and hence the book I’ve just written. My hope and prayer is that this new book finds [...]
2 May
Hope has primary colors…
…and those colors aren’t personal peace and prosperity (“give me my stuff and leave me alone”), individualism, and “heaven when I die.” Or perhaps I should say, those aren’t God’s primary colors. I love how God has taken all the complexity of religion, and boiled it down to the essence, down to three imperatives, three [...]
30 Apr
In secret: the value of humility and anonymity
Many of you have these words of Jesus: Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Could it be that these words, like so many others of Jesus’ are truer, much truer, than we realize? In my readings for the upcoming symposium of faith and science that I’m attending, I’ve discovered that the [...]
19 Apr
Insanity antidote: simplicity
If you’re reading these words, you’re likely among the top 10% of wealthiest people in the world. You’re probably not spending much time thinking about how you’ll get water to drink, or whether you’ll have a place of shelter tonight. Though it may come at steep price (depending on where you live) you have access [...]
8 Apr
The King’s Speech on D-day eve: A reference point for departure
While our nation’s “brightest and best” continue to engaging in embarrassing political posturing, I was privileged last night to enjoy a cup of tea with a dignified British woman who’s at the end of her ninth decade, whose husband fought bravely in WWII, and then worked to help Germany rebuild, both physically and spiritually. I’m [...]
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