Grace in the Wilderness

I worked as a hospital chaplain from October 2020 to May 2022. Hospital chaplaincy is a difficult line of work in general, but this was a particularly difficult period of time in the field. I entered the hospital for the first time before receiving a Covid vaccine, when there was a collective shock shared among Read more

“Ayeka” is God’s first question in the Bible. “Where are you?” God is in search of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3; The pair has just eaten the fruit from the forbidden tree (N.B.: Palestinian tradition says the fruit was an aphrodisiac pomegranate, not an apple) and they are now hiding from God. It seems Read more

On Christmas morning I sat in church, listening to a sermon on the Incarnation. I realized that I have not spent much time thinking about the Latin word incarno. This verb combines “in” with “carnis” — which we usually translate as “flesh.” We read John 1 in the service and heard about how “the Word Read more

I recently saw a post saying that Calvinist Santa would put everyone on the naughty list. While this is a hilarious take on Total Depravity, it also reminded me that God’s view of us does not exist on the naughty-nice spectrum. No matter how much we might hope to put ourselves on one end, and Read more

My older brother recently told me about Frank Lloyd Wright’s design theory of compression and expansion. The famed architect designed his homes so that visitors would first walk through a narrow entryway, or hallway, and then emerge into an expansive room. After a momentary feeling of compression comes the unbridled thrill of expansion. I have Read more