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FAITH = ACTION “Faith equals action, everything we do, everyway we move. Oh, faith equals actions. Come on, everybody, put your faith to work Isn’t it plain to see, what you say’s gotta be what you do if it’s true? Everyone gather round, finding our common ground. Be the change right now!” In the early summer of 2018, I was on the leadership team that developed that West Central Regional Youth Event (RYE) that was held at Grinnell College. (It just so happens that I flew from

Happy Epiphany! A dear friend of mine has two holidays she celebrates with great joy every year. One is Groundhog Day and yes, she has made several pilgrimages to Punxsutawney, PA. The other one is Epiphany. Early on she told me that on the night of Epiphany she heads outside to look at the stars (the star?) and make a wish: hoping, believing and trusting that God will give her what she wants or needs that year. When she first told me of this tradition, I did not correct her

I have many favorite Christmas songs. But there is one that impacts me spiritually more than any other. And it is one that I find very few people are familiar with. So let me introduce you to it if you do not already know it. Here is this YouTube video of the Christmas song “Awake! Awake, to Greet the New Morn” written by Marty Haugen and sung by the St. Olaf Choir. I rarely sing this song that I don’t have tears in my eyes. It reminds me that Christmas changes everything. “

I got locked out of my car on my way to church last week.  I was 45 minutes from home.  Twenty minutes from the church and everything I needed (i.e. cell phone and key) was in the car.  It was 9:15 am and worship was at 10 a.m. I was at a gas station in the middle of nowhere trying to get gas.  I freaked. I saw two men standing by a snowplow and confessed my dilemma (stupidity).  There was lighthearted laughter and advice on how to avoid future situations. Meanwhile I tried t

“Prepare Ye the Way.” Advent is about getting ourselves prepared. Which, in my experience, is quite ironic as I don’t think anything truly prepares you for new birth. Perhaps others have felt prepared for parenting. I did not. I mean, we had a several year long adoption process, so we had done adoption classes, read several parenting books, and had a nursery all set up. But twenty-two and half years ago in a municipal building in Chongqing, China, when they placed a 10-month-

Something is on the Horizon There are a lot of wonderful words out there that can be used to describe what’s happening during Advent, but few are better than this by Jan Richardson: “The season of Advent means there is something on the horizon the likes of which we have never seen before ... What is possible is to not see it, to miss it, to turn just as it brushes past you. And you begin to grasp what it was you missed, like Moses in the cleft of the rock, watching God’s [bac