Naming the summer. A summer theme for us to work on as a family. We were a newly blended family with both of us working and a lot of teenage angst and attitude. We called it the “Summer of Self-sufficiency”. Even as our children had the summer “off” from school, we were both working. To have them ask to me to make their meals, give them rides, find entertaining and interesting things to do was not going to work as a one-way street. We didn’t have some of the resources we had in the past for camps and classes, vacations and outings to entertain. We would be able to do some of those things and it would need to be balanced with work schedules. The intention was that together we could balance

Word. That’s what my bonus son Rico often says. Just that. Word. It’s slang for “I am in agreement” or can mean “I hear what you are saying” or “well said”. This week we hear lots of words from John 17. In a very lengthy prayer (that takes up all of the seventeenth chapter) Jesus prayers for his disciples and we can take it to be a prayer for us. Knowing that it is the night of his betrayal, arrest, soon it will be his trial and his crucifixion Jesus uses his last words with his disciples in a lengthy prayer and it is lots of words. As we prepare to hear part of this passage this coming weekend in worship (John 17:1-11) I would encourage you to read all of John 17. Today I am struck in parti

How can we know the way? In times that are uncertain and unknown, we get to ask for directions. The stereotype of men unwilling to ask for directions is contradicted in our gospel reading. In John 14:1-14 Thomas says to Jesus, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” John 14:5. So maybe it’s not exactly a direct request for directions, but for this week that’s how I am going to take it. And when we keep reading we see that Jesus will go on to give directions to Thomas, Philip, and all those who are listening including us, now, some two thousand years later. How long will Covid19 continue to spread, at what rate, when will it be safe to gather for worship, to pl