Ponderings

My trip to see Hamilton – and Sunday’s sermon that began with a little song called “Only a Boy Named David” got me pondering about the importance of music in our lives. I can forget where I put my keys, but remember the words to

Last night, a friend drove up from Indy, and we drove into Chicago to see Hamilton. I hadn’t driven in downtown Chicago in a few years, but all went well! As I sat in the theater, I found myself caught up not just in the

The Kingdom in Disguise: Learning to See This week we’ve listened for echoes of the Kingdom of God in unexpected places. We’ve learned to look for glimpses of it in unexpected circumstances. A hopeful line from C. S. Lewis reminded us that God is always

If The Chronicles of Narnia is a series of fantasy books for children containing Christian themes, the same is true of The Lord of the Rings, written for adults by J. R. R. Tolkien. Neither series is directly religious, but both were influenced by the

Can we be “bent” into grace? Or, perhaps more rightly, can grace “bend” us into something else, a better version of ourselves? Charles Dickens’ novel, Great Expectations, follows the orphan Pip as he leaves behind a childhood of misery and poverty after an anonymous benefactor

“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry – a French writer and aviator, author of The Little Prince). The fox shares this secret with the “Little Prince” to explain that

On mornings like this, it helps to look beyond the horizon. I know the forecast called for snow, but I just wasn’t mentally prepared for it. Neither was Tori, who went outside (briefly), came in, shook herself off, ate breakfast, looked outside, and then returned

Today ends my reading of The Chronicles of Narnia. While I personally enjoyed the first book in the series more than the last, C.S. Lewis concludes with an ending that is a new beginning. Once again, deep Christian theology sneaks into these books written for

The concept of going through some kind of portal and entering another world is a common theme in books and movies. Dorothy’s tornado whisks her away to Oz. One of my favorite Star Trek episodes is “The City on the Edge of Forever,” featuring a