In my days as a child we had supper time. Depending on the month, that ranged anywhere from 6 pm to 10 pm. Being farmers and a working family off the farm, rare did we all eat at the same time. My favorite meal times were with our church potlucks and Sunday afternoon meal gatherings with family and friends for birthdays, holidays, etc.
The same is true today in my life – I treasure mealtimes together. Gathering at table with simple good food and friends ground us and bless us.
Anyone want to have a Sunday afternoon dinner with us at our home? We would love to have you join us.
More good news from the pic above. Health benefits – brain benefits – academic benefits – joy benefits – happiness benefits – and the list keeps going. More of this and less of so much what our world tries to sell us.
Come Lord Jesus be our guest and let this food to us be blessed. Amen.
Today was a drencher. Is that even a word? outside my church office window it appeared to dump buckets and bathtubs full for about 20 minutes. One funny is that it drops especially hard outside my window (due to the roofline gutters) whereas the other office windows appear to have a nice gentle rain. I sometimes feel like I am in the Truman Show. Another good movie to watch if you have the time and want to stretch your mind a bit.
The fact is life happens to us and we make life happen. Both can exist at the same time. Sometimes we are in the storm and sometimes we are held safe from the storm and sometimes we are the storm. All three can also exist at the same time.
It’s rainy season now….almost daily…and so we sing….raindrops are falling on my head…that keeps the joy going.
Who needs an umbrella? That is so not the Seattle vibe.
I picked Norah up from practice and she was soaked! She excitedly said, “that was so awesome – we almost got struck by lightening.” Yikes I say.
Evening meetings with school teachers for conferences and confirmation and senior high church activities – our cups run over. So much good in the pouring rain. Let’s go jump in some puddles.
Jewel had her 12th birthday party this past week. As part of the celebration she wanted to do the sing along K-Pop movie at the mall. This dad had not paid any attention to these new musicians and the phenomenon sweeping through the kids. I enjoyed the movie and the songs and even rang out with the teens in the theater. Who knew this could be so fun 🤩.
The movie included themes of struggle, shame, truth telling, vulnerability, overcoming evil with good, true friendship, identity, belonging, and purpose.
Hmmm…perhaps our faith can inform these stories of life.
Keep your eyes and ears open, the Holy Spirit may be stirring where you least expect it.
Thank you Jewel for teaching your dad some new things!
In life, we have choices. Some of those choices lead to running toward something or running away from something. Either way, we are running.
Norah’s cross country team had a goal that they set last summer – qualify as a team for state. They did it! For the first time in 26 years the Federal Way girls team qualified. Was it easy – nope. Was there a whole lot of struggle – yup. Tons of hard work – yup. Lots of doubt and emotional roller coasters – yup. Injuries to battle through – yup. All of it and more. With two great seniors – a sophomore – and three salty freshman – the points added up to get them 3rd place at districts. The top 5 teams qualify.
All season long – the vision of qualification has them running towards something greater. That kept them going when the challenges confronted them. No running away – just the call to run toward the goal.
We cheered – we encouraged – we nudged – we supported the goal.
Even better, the boys and girls teams were voted by the District coaches as the best Sportmanship team this year. Hmmm, perhaps that had a whole lot to do with their running success. Be good encouragers of one another always.
Well done Federal Way cross country teams.
In all of life, may we always lean in and not run away, but run towards the goal that Jesus has for us.
Philippians 3:14New International Version
14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Our neighborhood has some cats that rule the streets. This cat wanders through our yard – sits on our chairs – looks in the windows – climbs up on my car – but in 7 years has never allowed us to pet her. You never know where you will see her but today she surprised me with the lookout position on top of my jeep.
What shall I learn from this close yet distant cat? Perhaps Independence and solitude: Cats are seen as independent creatures who are comfortable with their own company, often symbolizing self-reliance and the importance of introspection.
Loading……….introspection…….
A cat request….please drive away the voles that continue to destroy our yard 🤪
A book title comes from Canada: “If This Is Your Land, Tell Us Your Stories.” Here’s the back-story:
When the colonizers arrived with paper in hand, claiming land by “title,” the Indigenous peoples could not comprehend how ink and parchment could own earth, water, and sky.
Finally, a chief asked: “If this is your land—tell me your stories.”
For the land knows its own—
not by deed, but by devotion.
Not by possession, but by relationship.
There’s an old teaching about two brothers who each owned half a field. Each wanted what the other had. Neither would yield. So they sought out a rabbi famed for his wisdom.
He lay down beneath a tree, pressed his ear to the soil, and closed his eyes. Impatient, the brothers demanded he stop wasting their time. The rabbi rose and said,
“I was listening to the ground.
It told me neither of you owns it.
The ground owns you.
And one day, it will take you back.”
We think we own things—
our land, our homes, even our lives.
But we are only trustees of what was here before us
and will remain long after we return to dust.
All that we claim to possess, we owe:
–to the God who created it,
–to the ancestors who tended it,
–to the earth that sustains it,
–to the future that will inherit what we leave behind.
The real question is not What do we own? but What stories do we carry and pass on?
May we bring flourishing life through our storied lives.
Dorothy Day wrote this in 1946, under the title, “Love is the Measure”:
We confess to being fools and wish that we were more so…
What we would like to do is change the world — make it a little simpler for people to feed, clothe and shelter themselves as God intended them to do.
And to a certain extent, by fighting for better conditions, by crying out unceasingly for the rights of the workers, of the poor, of the destitute — the rights of the “worthy” and the “unworthy” poor in other words, we can to a certain extent change the world.
We can work for the oasis, the little cell of joy and peace in a harried world.
We can throw our pebble in the pond and be confident that its ever widening circle will reach around the world.
We can give away an onion.
We repeat, there is nothing that we can do but love, and dear God — please enlarge our hearts
to love each other, to love our neighbor, to love our enemy as well as our friend.
+ Dorothy Day
November 8 is the birthday of American activist and writer Dorothy Day, born in 1897. After a time as a radical journalist and activist in New York City, she converted to Catholicism and, along with the French Catholic activist Peter Maurin, began a publication called The Catholic Worker devoted to issues of justice, poverty, and human rights. The first issue, in 1933, cost one penny — and it still does today. In that inaugural edition, Day wrote that the paper was “For those who are sitting on park benches in the warm spring sunlight. For those who are huddling in shelters trying to escape the rain. For those who are walking the streets in the all but futile search for work.” The discussions provoked by The Catholic Worker led to the creation of “houses of hospitality” in New York City and across the country, where people without homes, especially women, could seek shelter, companionship, and assistance.
Her autobiography, The Long Loneliness, published in 1952, is a modern classic. She said, “My strength returns to me with my cup of coffee and the reading of the Psalms.”
A family concert outing for worship and praise with Phil Wickham and Charity Gayle. An absolutely tremendous evening of prayer and song. All 7 of us deeply moved. Thankful to receive spirit filled inspiration as a family.
Song by Charity Gayle ‧ 2021
I just wanna speak the name of Jesus Over every heart and every mind ‘Cause I know there is peace within Your presence I speak Jesus
I just wanna speak the name of Jesus ‘Til every dark addiction starts to break Declaring there is hope and there is freedom I speak Jesus
‘Cause Your name is power Your name is healing Your name is life Break every stronghold Shine through the shadows Burn like a fire
I just wanna speak the name of Jesus Over fear and all anxiety To every soul held captive by depression I speak Jesus
‘Cause Your name is power Your name is healing Your name is life Break every stronghold Shine through the shadows Burn like a fire
Shout Jesus from the mountains Jesus in the streets Jesus in the darkness, over every enemy Jesus for my family I speak the holy name Jesus, oh (oh)
Shout Jesus from the mountains And Jesus in the streets (oh) Jesus in the darkness, over every enemy Jesus for my family I speak the holy name Jesus (Jesus)
‘Cause Your name is power Your name is healing Your name is life Break every stronghold Shine through the shadows Burn like a fire
Your name is power (Your name is power) Your name is healing (Your name is healing) Your name is life (You are my life) Break every stronghold (break every stronghold) Shine through the shadows Burn like a fire
I just wanna speak the name of Jesus Over every heart and every mind ‘Cause I know there is peace within Your presence I speak Jesus
An excerpt from Madeleine L’Engle’s 1969 poem, “Lines Scribbled on an Envelope while Riding the 104 Broadway Bus.”
There is too much pain I cannot understand I cannot pray…
Here I am and the ugly man with beery breath beside me reminds me that it is not my prayers that waken your concern, my Lord; my prayers, my intercessions are not to ask for your love for all your lost and lonely ones, your sick and sinning souls, but mine, my love, my acceptance of your love. Your love for the woman sticking her umbrella and her expensive parcels into my ribs and snarling, “Why don’t you watch where you’re going?” Your love for the long-haired, gum-chewing boy who shoves the old lady aside to grab a seat, Your love for me, too, too tired to look with love, too tired to look at Love, at you, in every person on the bus. Expand my love, Lord, so I can help to bear the pain, help your love move my love into the tired prostitute with false eyelashes and bunioned feet, the corrupt policeman with his hand open for graft, the addict, the derelict, the woman in the mink coat and discontented mouth, the high school girl with heavy books and frightened eyes.
Help me through these scandalous particulars to understand your love.
Our dear neighbor Jerry died this week. There was no neighborhood notice or phone tree to inform us. I learned of it by the pop up estate sale at his home today. No sign posted for that either – just a notice on an online marketplace ad. The cul de sac was filled with cars. I was hoping it was for a surprise birthday party or family gathering. Instead, just the end of Jerry and the end of him being or neighbor.
He was the quiet and humble man that was the warm presence at the mailbox. He loved caring for his yard and I loved visiting with him there. He was kind to all of our kids. He and most of the guys in my neighborhood long retired from Boeing.
I did not know it for our first three years living next door, but he was the care giver for his wife who was bed ridden. He never said a word. Just quietly and lovingly caring for his wife at home – never asking for a thing – just humbly living and loving and serving with each breath.
Someone at the estate sale just blurted out to the cashier, “How did he die and what was his name?” A simply reply, “Jerry – cancer – care center the last week of his life.”
I also never knew that he had cancer. That makes me even sadder. I wish I could have done something for him. I wish I could have helped in his time of need. In my quietness, I reflect that perhaps that’s my need and not his.
I am going to miss Jerry. Life is like that. It is here and then it is gone. The older I get the more my heart grieves these losses. They add up – they multiply – they are heavy – they hurt so much. Heart ache with sighs too deep for words.
I did purchase a few items of this quickly thrown together estate sale. They loved cats so Jewel now has a small knitted cat picture and the cutest cat fan. I have a drawing easel. A few seashells for the yard. His bleeding heart plant. A salmon bowl. Little glimpses of the grace of Jerry and Marjorie’s life. Little reminders of our quiet and humble neighbor.
Yesterday I shared communion with a dear friend on the one year anniversary of his wife’s death. With his wife’s ashes – a simple rose – two wafers – and two small cups of wine – we prayed and held on to grace. A sacred moment in time to pause – and remember.
I found these words today from my doctorate professor deeply meaningful – I hope you do too.
Getting Out of the Way (from Leonard Sweet)
Sometimes the holiest thing we can do is move aside. Yesterday, one of my former students Sandra Paran, now a hospice chaplain (and Facebook friend and Substack subscriber), was praying at the bedside of a woman nearing her final breath. As she whispered the words of Jesus—
“I go to prepare a place for you… that where I am, you may be also” —
the woman quietly slipped from this life into the next.
Later someone said, “You just happened to be there when she died?” And Sandra replied, “No. God put me there. . . . Oh, to do God’s work—to simply get out of the way and make that possible. What an honor.”
Sandra nailed it. There is no higher calling than to serve as a doorway for grace, to stand still enough for God’s presence to move through you, to love so gently that heaven feels near.
To serve God is to let God serve through you— to be present, not performing; available, not in control. When we step aside, healing happens. When we get out of the way, God finds a way.
Prayer for Today: Lord of Life and Love, teach us the grace of holy absence— to step aside so You may step in. Make our hands gentle enough for healing, our hearts wide enough for heaven, and our presence still enough for Your presence to be felt. Let us serve You by serving others, until every act of love becomes a thin place where You pass through. Amen.
Johnson 2025 Sabbatical 