The end of the calendar year provides a good opportunity for us look back at the previous year and to look forward at the coming year. Oftentimes, we try to set New Year’s resolutions. I am not against the practice but much research shows that the majority of New Year’s resolutions, about 75%, are never …
Singing Our Faith into Our Lives in Advent
Advent is one of the times I remember most clearly from my early years. My parents would gather my older brother and I around the Advent wreath each night to light candles and sing hymns about the coming of Christ. That tradition is one we have continued in our own family, since the time our …
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The Pilgrim Way: relearning life as a journey with God from the faithful in Hebrews 11
An old spiritual describes our life as Christians this way: I am a pilgrim and a stranger, traveling through this wearisome land, I've got a home in that yonder city, good Lord, and it's not...not made by hands. It is an overused description to say that life is a journey. The reason this idea is …
Sabbath: recovering identity through God’s rhythm for life
When I used to hear the word Sabbath, I thought of something legalistic and rigid or just plain out of touch with my life. I would picture flowing robes and beards of Old Testament characters exhorting people to rigidly 'keep the Sabbath day.' But the more that I have thought about Sabbath, the more I …
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Lamenting Our Losses: three vital parts of lament in the pandemic
I was talking with a friend the other day about some of the changes we have experienced during the pandemic. Some of them were simple—activities we could no longer enjoy or places we could no longer visit—and others were more complex—missed milestones in our lives, friends and family members suffering with sickness, and concerns about …
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Matthew Erickson 