Creative Meaning Maker
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
Does everybody love everybody?” My father’s booming baritone would sound with a faint hint of warning as his four teenagers would be scrambling for their preferred television channel, the comfortable couch, or worst of all, leg room in the station wagon.At the sound of this warning we would squelch our resentments temporarily and assume the… Continue reading Community
I haven't given much thought to the face of Wisdom's handmaiden, Humility. But I encountered her so vividly last week that her subtle and beautiful features shine with clarity after leaving "Worship Camp." Perhaps I can give you a glimpse of her lovely face. My teaching partner, Reggie Kidd, and I have just completed teaching… Continue reading Handmaiden Humility
I've had the house to myself the last ten days. I get up and go to bed on my own schedule. I am free to read for hours, and break for food when my body tells me it's time to eat. I could walk for hours if it wasn't so beastly hot, and I can… Continue reading Hidden Freedom (Part 1)
It shifted in a moment. Heaven made robes for earth. An animal was killed and skinned, and its blood saturated the earth. The skins were handed to two people who suddenly knew too much about vulnerability and nothing but a dim reminder of the innocence with which they began that day. They were terrified. But the Lord God had… Continue reading Grace is a Person
I have been deeply imbedded in the sin of sloth this past week. No, this blog is not a confession, although it certainly could be. I have been teaching on hope and its opposite, sloth--that most invisible and most pervasive of sins in our contemporary context. One of the issues surrounding sloth is questioning why… Continue reading Hope and Sloth
The rocky northern Atlantic coast, while majestic, is not a swimmer’s paradise. The rocks on the “open side” are particularly high and jagged, and the water that crashes against them is deadly cold. On Monhegan, an island off the coast of Maine, no one who has fallen into the icy water on the open side of the island has ever… Continue reading Rollercoaster on a Wave: Part 2
Today I had two encounters about speaking the truth in love. In both conversations the parties were wrestling with the burden of carrying wisdom that others were not yet ready to hear. What is the good of wisdom if it is not immediately transferable? We read Jesus’ brief parable: “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of… Continue reading The Wisdom of a Scribe
Our souls are created to look “up and out,” not “down and in.” One of the important implications of this reality is how we come to understand the mess inside, and then what to do with it. If “down and in” is a place where self talks to self, it is a closed system. I go on talking and… Continue reading Posture of Repentance
“Lord, it is like this...” What would our prayers be like if we were free to be honest with God? No flowery words, no undigested churchy images. Just honest. I’ve been teaching a course on intercessory prayer through the lenses of gospel stories where friends bring friends to Jesus. The father with a child writhing on the ground, who… Continue reading Praying with Blocks
Carla Waterman 