Lent has a way of interrupting my life. I would even go so far as to say that most years lead up to Lent for me. I suppose that’s the point.

Lent has a way of interrupting my life. I would even go so far as to say that most years lead up to Lent for me. I suppose that’s the point.
In his book, "Losing Susan: Brain Disease, the Priest's Wife, and the God Who Gives and Takes Away," Victor Lee Austin recalls how in the midst of all his suffering, he was able to find joy, in the everyday rituals of caring for his dying wife.
We were too young for something like this. Only 22 years old, and we had buried our own child.
Life is hard. Loss is part of it. Pain is part of it. But: the one who watches over us neither slumbers nor sleeps, and we are not alone. The psalmist certainly knew that sometimes it's important to look back at where we've been and what we've been through, so that we can see how God has "brought us out into a spacious place."
I’m haunted by the ghost of Li-Young Lee’s father. He’s there, in Lee’s poetry, tromping around upstairs or reading aloud so we can’t sleep. He lingers by the pear trees at the corner of our …
I approach texts like Psalm 31 with great fear and trepidation. I am drawn to them like a moth to flame, which is to say, warily, for I know these Psalms of lament can be devastating if you take them seriously.