by Bill Haley | Feb 15, 2019 | Contemplative Life
On the desktop of my computer I keep a document called “Current Quotes”, easily found to be opened quickly (the app Evernote works just as well). It’s for brief thoughts and quotes, from deeply trusted sources that reveal deep truths and that speak to me in the...
by Bill Haley | Feb 7, 2019 | Contemplative Life, For the World
When I was growing up, there was a funny little toy called Stretch Armstrong. Made of soft rubber and dressed only in tiny blue wrestler’s shorts with blond hair painted on, there was really only one thing you could do with him: stretch his arms as far apart as they...
by Bill Haley | Jan 24, 2019 | Contemplative Life
We wrestle with God for all sorts of reasons. Sometimes, we want to wrestle because of what we see “out there”– a culture moving in the wrong direction, the moral failings of trusted leaders, the disunity and strife amongst God’s people, etc. ...
by Bill Haley | Jan 18, 2019 | Contemplative Life, Justice and Mercy
As we approach the national holiday honoring the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, it’s easy (and right) to contemplate his activism and commit to carrying on that legacy of justice for all and especially for those who have the hardest time finding it. It...
by Bill Haley | Jan 10, 2019 | Justice and Mercy
“Tikkun Olam” is I think one of the most powerful phrases on the planet. It’s Hebrew and of the Jewish tradition, and captures the vocation of post-Fall woman and man. It simply means “repair of the world”. Embedded in Tikkun Olam are the assertions that...
by Bill Haley | Jan 4, 2019 | Contemplative Life, Creation, Liturgical Seasons
Almost 10 years ago, we moved from the inner-city of Washington to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. There are at least two things I haven’t gotten used to yet, and hope I never will be. Both are arresting. Both can stop you in your tracks with a sense of awe,...
by Bill Haley | Dec 14, 2018 | Contemplative Life
Earlier this week Michael Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison for illegal acts committed while in service to Donald Trump. Until this week I’ve not given much thought to Michael Cohen and bear him no ill will, but I do think his story warrants attention as a...
by Bill Haley | Dec 5, 2018 | Contemplative Life
“Oh Lord, please light the fire / That once burned bright and clear. Replace the lamp of my first love / That burns with holy fear.” -Keith Green I’m really excited about a new retreat we’re offering at Corhaven on Saturday, February 23. Jesus is so great that...
by Bill Haley | Dec 5, 2018 | Liturgical Seasons
Advent–always a wonderful, and strange, season. It’s wonderful because it gives the opportunity once again to recall the long wait of the people of God for their Savior, and the promises punctuating centuries of waiting throughout the Old Testament that would find...
by Bill Haley | Nov 30, 2018 | Contemplative Life
I’m not a big birthday guy. Most years I’m content to quietly let the day pass without a lot of notice and a simple dinner with loved ones, with some time to reflect and pray in gratitude. But this year I tip over some sort of edge into my 50s, and as I’ve done on...
by Bill Haley | Nov 29, 2018 | Contemplative Life, Coracle News
Well, friends, it’s been another remarkable year of watching God work through Coracle. What really fires me up is comments like these from folks we’ve walked with in the last year, just a sample of many… “My life, praise the Lord, will never be the same. “ “I can...
by Bill Haley | Nov 20, 2018 | Contemplative Life, Creation
“O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever!” Ps. 30.12 Of course we all go through challenging seasons, and seasons when we might feel a little depressed, or things aren’t turning out quite the way we thought or not at all the way we hoped or wanted. It’s too...
by Bill Haley | Nov 15, 2018 | Contemplative Life
I’d been on that roof top many times in Kathmandu, and never seen it. But when last there and our group was taking the Eucharist on that same roof top deck, one of our members suddenly exclaimed, “Look! There’s a Himalaya!” And indeed there it was, one mighty...
by Bill Haley | Nov 9, 2018 | Contemplative Life
At the end of a week when our eyes have been focused on the mid-term elections of 2018 in the United States, we can be grateful that our country’s governmental model–based on the checks and balance of power–worked yet again. For those most concerned about the...
by Bill Haley | Nov 1, 2018 | Justice and Mercy
Last week’s news in America was terrible, shocking, depressing, and filled with sadness. The mail bombs from Florida, the targeted killing of African Americans in Kentucky, and the massacre of Jews in Pittsburgh can’t help but raise the questions of our country,...
by Bill Haley | Oct 26, 2018 | Contemplative Life
Some authors are worth coming back to again and again. Dallas Willard is one of those for me. Dallas will, for a profound lack of a better phrase, rock your world, if you do the hard work to understand what he’s getting at! His thoughts and contributions are like...
by Bill Haley | Sep 20, 2018 | For the World, Justice and Mercy
On a layover this week* through Vienna, Austria on the way to Cyprus, I was reminded of one reason why getting out of my home country on a somewhat regular basis has been, for about 25 years, almost a spiritual discipline. International airport hubs are like swimming...
by Bill Haley | Jun 22, 2018 | Contemplative Life
In Jesus’ life, he had many conversations with his Father in prayer. At times, we know Jesus’ side of the conversation, what he said. But we don’t have many accounts of what God the Father said to God the Son. There are three times God the Father spoke in audible...
by Bill Haley | Jun 11, 2018 | Contemplative Life
It is autumn, my favorite season. The beauty of it, for those with eyes to see, threatens to undo us. This is the sentiment of Edna St. Vincent Millay in her poem, in autumn, ‘God’s World’: O world, I cannot hold thee close enough! Thy winds, thy wide grey skies! ...
by Bill Haley | Jun 7, 2018 | For the World, Pilgrimage
I’ve just returned from Bethlehem where I attended the “Christ at the Checkpoint” conference convened by Bethlehem Bible College, The Holy Land Trust, Musalaha, Bethlehem Lutheran Christmas Church, and others. The theme of the fifth annual conference was “Jesus...
