Those Stones, Those Roses
I’ve been thinking we need a good dose of nostalgia. In fact, I’m hoping for...
A New Path Out Ahead
There are just a few principles in life that really matter: love, first of all,...
Be quiet. Listen. Look.
My son Michael had a dream the other night. He was driving his car, at quite a...
Sunrise Must Be On Its Way
I love this painting, Claude Monet’s Impression, Sunrise, painted in 1872,...
The Locked Door Within
I was reading this morning in Abigail Rine Favale’s stunningly beautiful book...
Coming In Out Of The Wind
I’m back. A number of friends have asked me if I would ever return to my blog....
Singing Simply For The Beauty
Last Sunday our choir at church sang this beautiful anthem: For the beauty of...
Seeing What Simeon Saw
I’ve been trying to enter the amazing Christmas story from the inside out. I...
Joy In A Child's Laughter
I’ve been thinking a lot about joy. It’s kind of hard to find these days....
It's Still About Engaging The Culture
In 1996 I began work as the President of Seattle Pacific University. Like any...
Can Our Nation Ever Rejoice Again?
I’ve been wondering lately whether it might ever be possible again for our...
Speaking With Grace
In my last post I talked about how Michael Gerson characterizes the state of our...
Finding Our Better Selves
I woke up yesterday at 2 AM and found myself churning over the current climate...
It's Time To Talk About Frogs
It’s time to talk about frogs. It’s time to think about, in Christian...
We are Easter people now!
“Where do we go from here,” we ask ourselves on this Monday morning after...
A Serious House For A Serious Earth
I’ve been thinking a lot about church. What is church? What is the main...
Sing With The Shepherds
I woke up on Christmas Eve morning this year with child-like eagerness. After...
When Lightning Struck In Luther's Study
I’ve been trying to zero in on the heart of the Reformation. Good luck, I hear...
It Is Good To Be Here
In the ancient teachings of contemplative prayer, it is common practice to enter...
It's High Time To Rise
I began again this morning a new cycle through the Psalms. This has been my...
Waiting On God's Favor
Most of the time we think we are in control of our lives, perhaps especially...
The Lazy Days Of Summer--And God
The New York Times last Sunday asked two contemporary American poets to reflect...
The Train Needs A New Track
I woke up one morning a week or so ago with Twitter going crazy over some very...
Good Friday—So Utterly Alone
Jesus was taken away, and went out, carrying the cross himself, to the place...
The Builder And The Contemplative
In his magnificent book The Love of Learning and The Desire for God: A Study of...
Reclaiming Christian Community?
Big publishing news going on today. A long-awaited and much-anticipated...
Crowding Around The Table
François Mauriac begins one of the chapters in his intriguing 1962 book What I...
Like A Drop Of Water
I was thinking the other day how each human being is unique. So is each animal,...
All Is Well . . . Things Are Okay
In my ongoing efforts to step aside from the madness in which we seem engulfed,...
Living In A Bubble—Who Me?
Apparently we live in a world of alternative truths. We float around in our...
The Dawn Of A New Day
Is it ever possible to be satisfied, to be fully self-accepting, to be content?...
A Cup Of Coffee And The Psalms
As I begin this new year, I am trying to reshape my posture toward our...
Are We Ready For Something New?
At this time of year, I have always been an inveterate goal setter. I love the...
Putting The Ego Back In Its Cage
Our world is saturated with the human ego these days. We are swamped. It can...
Time For Some Good News
Maybe it’s time for some good news. On the morning when 100 million of us are...
Lifting The Burden Of Shame
We live in an age of shame. We are instructed endlessly to feel ashamed of...
Gertrude Himmelfarb, The Christian University: A Call to Counterrevolution
This is another fine article...
A Fresh Breeze From Charleston
I spent last weekend longing for some fresh summer breezes. But really my...
Safety On Our Campuses
I keep circling around an incredible column by Peggy Noonan a few weeks ago in...
Discovering Our Purpose
New York Times columnist David Brooks has been talking a lot (in speeches,...
Signals From The Edge
Are you ever suddenly surprised that there is something instead of nothing? Or...
Magic, Mystery, And Illusion
Sharon and I went to see Woody Allen’s delightful movie last night called...
And What About Mystery?
I want to return to that amazing article I quoted from a few days ago by Adam...
The Possibility Of Belief: Do The Nays Have It?
I am one who is rarely dispassionate about the secularization of our culture. I...
Americans Are Exhausted
Lots of pictures this morning of our valiant U. S. soccer players, sprawled out...
A Radiant People At SPU
I write just several days after inexplicable, unexpected violence struck at the...
What’s All This Talk About Enemies?
I don’t walk around thinking about enemies. That’s not a word that slips...
The Front Edge Of Character Formation
At the annual conference for presidents of the Council Of Independent Colleges,...
Waking Up In Radical Amazement
David Brooks has written an extraordinary reflection about the difficulty of...
Becoming Radiant People
Over last weekend I had the privilege of preaching at the historic Lake Avenue...
On Making The Brain Nice
Some of my best friends are brain scientists. Well, actually, there is only one,...
We Are All Just A Little Crazy
We are all just a little crazy. Did you ever stop and think about that? We like...
Good Leadership And The A-Rod Factor
There’s something fundamental going on with the Alex Rodriquez fiasco. It was...
No Options When It Comes To Good Leadership
When I cut my teeth as a young leader, I tried, like most leaders, to sort out...
Surprise At The McDonald’s In Nogales
N. T. Wright says that we are often startled by the “long-range signposts ”...
John Lennon Got Some Things Wrong, Beautifully
On a beautiful, warm evening last week, Sharon and I attended an outdoor concert...
What Does It Mean To Be Struck By Grace?
I feel like I was struck by grace this past week. Two reflections, by two...
The Night My Dad Died
I have been writing a poem about the night my dad died. It was a very special...
The Little Way To A Good Life
I have just finished reading a remarkable book called The Little Way of Ruthie...
The World Needs Our Universities
Our universities in America are the envy of the world. There are a lot of...