The Oscars were on tonight. I didn’t watch them. In the past 12 years, I’ve only sat through them twice, both with a group of people. I really only enjoy it when I’m with a room full of people, hopefully a few snarky comedians to liven up the room and remind us all that, well, it’s just an awards show. I never remember who won the previous year, so how important could it be? I had…
Lent began Ash Wednesday. I guess this makes it Lent: Day 3. I told myself that for Lent, I would attempt to build a quiet life — or rather rebuild one. I’ve been trying to rebuild a place of quiet back into my life. In fact, I began seeing a spiritual director to do this. I should mention I started with my spiritual director over a year ago. Still, no consistent quiet time. Why? Too much grief.…
I came of age in my Christian faith during the 1980s. I grew up with faith, but in college and beyond I made it personal and active. And formulaic. Like the way everyone wore “Miami Vice” colors in the 1980s, every Christian college-age kid was encouraged to join a bible study, a church, learn how to do “friendship evangelism” and — this is the big one — have a “quiet time.” “Quiet time” sounds kinda…
I’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of satirizing my experiences in various church denominations. I chronicled them in a memoir. Many people contacted me who had experienced the same frustration or trauma. There was a kind of camaraderie: comparing our wounds, knowing we are not alone, hoping that there was (and there is, by the way) a way out and forward into a real experience of God, your warts and all. But occasionally I…
