When I was teaching in Thailand, we called them “Teak of Righteousness”–Oaks are not native to Thai soil. But this morning I found myself praying with a wry smile and said to the Lord, “If you are making me a Bonsai of righteousness, I will not fight you.” My life has been pruned back so… Continue reading A Bonsai of Righteousness
Tag: meaning
A Root of Integrity
When I am in a season of seeking to remember and reclaim why I am alive, I reach for the novels of Elizabeth Goudge. Finding myself once more in that season, I am re-reading my old friends. The Scent of Water is among my top three of her stories. Goudge, herself a devout Christian who… Continue reading A Root of Integrity
Ubi Caritas
I had the most extraordinary experience on Maundy Thursday. I was playing the piano for the small church where I presently worship. It is part of the complicated map of American Anglicanism that regularly rearranges itself in this era. I have a deep love for the beauty and truth of this prayer book tradition, even as I ache… Continue reading Ubi Caritas
Careening Carrots and Welcoming Worship
There was no doubt that I was somewhere completely "other" from the moment I got off the plane. It wasn't just the endless sun that never seemed to set as I continued to fly west and west and more west. It was the spicy air and the curved bent of an alphabet that had as… Continue reading Careening Carrots and Welcoming Worship
Living Symbols
One of the pictures that frequently rests on my computer desktop is a photograph my friend Gigi took of St. Bartholomew's Chapel. This brave little "Pilgrim chapel"-white with bright red turrets-has stood since the 12th century between the Watzmann, the highest continuous vertical face mountain in the world, and the Konigsee---the deepest lake in Germany.… Continue reading Living Symbols
Kindred Temptations
I spent a delightful evening last weekend with a new friend. We found we had many things in common, but huge among them was a particular vocational path. Both of us had started adulthood driven and quite successful. And all these years later our lives were much simpler, and not particularly impressive by cultural standards.… Continue reading Kindred Temptations
Desert Dwelling
There are those who dwell in the desert, not as yearly discipline, or as the unlooked for invitation when life becomes a dust bowl, or even as a place of refuge from whatever or whoever is nipping at our heels. The actual experience in the desert is nearly always hidden from observation. Others perceive, instead,… Continue reading Desert Dwelling
No Swinging During Lent
This Lent I can’t abstain from caffeinated coffee because I am not drinking it at all. But for years it has been a not so trivial way to help me step into the season of Lent. Not being a "morning person," my cup of coffee in the morning helps me wake up, and offers comfort… Continue reading No Swinging During Lent
Favored Ones
"I renounce the lies the enemy tells us about you, dear Father of Jesus." The scene? A Saturday afternoon as our class on the Sacred Actions and Ministries of Worship gathered in a little historic chapel at the Robert E. Webber Institute for Worship Studies (IWS) for a service of baptismal renewal. The teaching on… Continue reading Favored Ones
A Merciful Silence (Zechariah Part 1)
Resignation is a soul-deadening, light-obscuring posture of the soul. There is a hopeless inevitability in it that slowly shuts the door to God's comforting light. When Zechariah the priest entered the temple to burn incense that day a double-portion of resignation is residing in his soul. As an Israelite, he is the member of a… Continue reading A Merciful Silence (Zechariah Part 1)
Carla Waterman 