Making room for God in your carry-on
A trip report from one of my colleagues at Episcopal Relief & Development recently crossed my desk. I find these reports extremely helpful in understanding the challenges my co-workers are facing as they visit our programs around the world. Each of these reports is fascinating.
However, this one was exceptional: it contained a mystery. Continue reading “The Water and Sanitation Mystery (Part One)”
Author’s note: The second part of this story reminds us that, even after the most terrible of disasters, we can find hope and healing. I hold onto this as we count the losses of the most recent series of tragedies we are enduring.
The morning after we received the Kumari’s blessing, my daughter and I set out to visit the epicenter of the massive earthquake that struck Nepal on April 25, 2015. The memory of the Kumari’s gaze calmed me as we sat in traffic making our way out of Kathmandu. Continue reading “The Kumari’s Blessing (Part Two)”
Just short of a year after the April 25, 2015 earthquake that struck Nepal, my daughter and I landed in Kathmandu. We were there to visit the recovery programs that Episcopal Relief & Development was supporting. Before leaving Kathmandu to tour the epicenter of the destruction and our work, my daughter and I took an afternoon to visit the Living Goddess—the Kumari—and to receive her blessing. Continue reading “The Kumari’s Blessing (Part One)”
Starting on Sunday, as the scope and devastation of Hurricane Harvey became apparent, my email box began to fill with some version of: “What can I do to help?” I praise God for these emails.
When we see images of people suffering, we want to do something. That’s understandable.
As Christians, we are called to seek and serve Christ in all people and never more so than in times of crisis.
You don’t have to travel thousands of miles to find a thin place.
In fact, it’s important to find them in your everyday life. But, you have to be looking for them. Here are three thin places that I try to visit on a regular basis.
Each time I approach Elmina Castle on the Cape Coast of Ghana, I am struck by the beauty of its setting. The Castle sits on a bluff looking out over the Atlantic Ocean. 
Swaying palms. Breaking waves. Shimmering white sand on an endless beach. Blazing saffron sunsets.
However, the beauty is counterfeit. Evil permeates Elmina.
The Old City in Jerusalem is chockablock with thin places.
Countless worship and pilgrimage sites for the three Abrahamic faiths are packed within one square kilometer.
I find it all overwhelming. For the most part I have not experienced the transcendent power of being in a thin place when I am in the Old City.
There is one exception to this.
Have you ever had the sensation that the barrier between the temporal and the eternal has become porous or indeed disappeared entirely? Then you’ve found a “thin place.” One of my goals in this blog is to share my experiences of those places with you so that you can be on the lookout as well.
Middle Path runs right through the center of Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. The Middle Path, or as Anglicans and Episcopalians call it, the via media, is the path between Roman Catholicism and Puritanism. It is by following the via media that one comes closest to finding the truth. But, can you also find God on Middle Path?
Earlier this summer, over 50 faith leaders from diverse religious traditions gathered in the buildings along Kenyon College’s Middle Path. We came to find the voices we want to use in the public square.
I can’t say whether I found my voice. That is for others to judge. What I do know is that I heard God’s voice.
Do you leave God behind when you enter the hell of an airport? You don’t have to. Here are five ways that I’ve found helpful in bringing God with me when I travel.
Continue reading “Is there room for God in your carry-on bag?”
