Blog - Page 23 of 26 - LiftUpYourHearts

Impressed with Prayer

Some years ago I embarked on a long retreat with a new spiritual director, and at our first session he asked me how and how often I pray. Seems like a reasonable question for a spiritual director to ask, but somehow it made me feel a bit like I do when the dentist asks me how often I … Read the rest

Wisdom in All the Wrong Places

Proper 20B

Who is wise and understanding among you?

The letter of James poses that question rhetorically, because the author already has an answer ready for us: “wisdom… is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy.” If that’s what you’re like, you are indeed wise. But … Read the rest

A Heart to Heal Hypocrisy

Proper 17B

Sisters and brothers, let us “be doers of the word, not merely hearers.” Be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; care for orphans and widows in their distress. Did you know that there are more than 100 imperatives in the Letter of James? The list may be long, but at least it’s finite. So the … Read the rest

The Incarnational “Ick” Factor

Proper 15B

A few years ago an insurance company ran
a television ad touting how their products save money. My husband John and I don’t watch a lot of TV at home—we kind of got out of the habit when we lived in
Nicaragua—so its not often that I actually know what the popular commercials are. But this one captured … Read the rest

Deep Hunger & True Treasure

Feast of Laurence of Rome

There’s a book about Jesuit prayer practice—a personal favorite—called “Sleeping with Bread.” It takes its title from a WWII era story, when thousands of children were orphaned and left to starve. The fortunate ones were rescued and placed in refugee camps where they received food and good care. But still, many of these children could … Read the rest

Loving the Questions

Proper 13B

“Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart, and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live … Read the rest

Not Dead Yet

Matthew 9:18-26 TalithaKum

I might characterize the Gospel lesson we just heard as a tale of two daughters. One of them the well-loved daughter of a Jewish leader, who was so committed to her wellbeing that he was willing to publically humble himself before an itinerant healer of somewhat dubious credentials. The other un-named woman was an evident outcast. We have … Read the rest

Unexceptional Grace

Proper 9B

“I know a person… who was caught up into Paradise,” Paul wrote to the church in Corinth nearly two thousand years ago. “Even considering the exceptional character of the revelations, however, I refrain from boasting.”

This passage is one of my favorites in all of Paul’s voluminous and dense correspondence to the early church, in large part because … Read the rest

Slaying the Giant Among Us

Proper 7B

Last week I was in northern Michigan visiting an old friend who lives in Leelanau County, which is at the tip of a peninsula extending into Lake Michigan alongside Grand Traverse Bay. Its really beautiful country, and among its many charmsare miles of sandy beaches where amateur geologists search out a kind of fossilized corral known as petosky … Read the rest

Think About These Things. Really.

Jeremiah 1:4-9
Psalm 84
Philippians 4:4-9
Matt. 9:35-38

And so, deacons and priests in waiting, the day has come. The day you dreamed of, worked hard for, maybe ran even harder from; the day you worried about and rejoiced in. In a few Spirit-filled minutes you will take vows that nobody can possibly fulfill but for the grace of our … Read the rest