Journal

Category: Contemplative Life

SOUNDINGS: “Wrestling with God”

SOUNDINGS: “Wrestling with God”

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. ...

A World of Silent Night

By: John Gardner Many people know the story of how Franz Gruber, an organist in Oberndorf, Austria, whose organ was broken, hurriedly composed the melody for “Silent Night” for guitar on Christmas Eve, 1818 – two hundred years ago today.  The bicentennial has gone...

Falling in Love with Jesus (How to, or Again)

“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...
The Day After Thanksgiving

The Day After Thanksgiving

“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...

SOUNDINGS – Seeing What Was Hidden

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...

The Feast of All Saints

“… to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” 1 Corinthians 1:2 Today, November 1, is the Feast of All Saints. Recognition, veneration, and prayer...
SOUNDINGS – Burning Grace Like Jet Fuel

SOUNDINGS – Burning Grace Like Jet Fuel

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...
Walking as Spiritual Practice

Walking as Spiritual Practice

by Ann Bodling Coracle Spiritual Director A couple of weeks ago, a friend asked me what my spiritual practices have been lately.  I was caught off guard and mumbled something about reading and contemplative prayer but, at the same time, I felt like I was forgetting...