Making diamonds out of us
Often in the morning as I awake, God gives me songs which become prayers. Usually, it’s just a phrase or tune that causes me to search out the rest of the song and leads to a time of worship in the shower, or as I wait for the kettle to boil. I praise God for…
Readers write: Oct. 24, 2016 issue
‘Minister’s handbook to reproductive loss’ available online re: “coping, grieving, remembering,” Sept. 12, page 4. I’m writing to express my appreciation for Beth Downey Sawatzky’s thoughtfully written piece on pregnancy loss. I was particularly drawn to “Holly’s” natural inclination towards ritual when she asked her doula to bless one of her babies during his burial.…
Stories: yours, mine, ours
In her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, the late Harper Lee captures the complex reality of relationship: “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view . . . until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.” Sounds messy and uncomfortable, doesn’t it?…
Healthy truth
“You will know the truth and the truth will make you free.” Jesus’ oft-repeated axiom from John 8 lifts up the value of truth-telling. The living out of it, though, is not simple. As one poster riffed: “The truth will make you free, if it doesn’t kill you first.” In the accompanying picture, a two-dimensional…
A lesson on sharing
A father often took his five-year-old son to the local minor hockey league games. Each time they went, they saw the same homeless man in the parking lot asking for donations. The first time, the son asked his dad why the man was asking for money, providing an opportunity for the dad to explain homelessness.…
Reunion
This is no ordinary 1960s family reunion photo. Thousands of Mennonites fleeing the Soviet Union after the Second World War were forcibly repatriated. With the doors closed on mass migration, Mennonite Central Committee focussed on making efforts to reunite families, one at a time. Some of these men, women and children had arrived in Canada…
Wisdom, where art thou? (Pt. 1)
One of the devil’s tactics in the temptation of Jesus, recorded in Matthew 4 and Luke 4, intrigues me. In this story, Satan takes Jesus to the holy city of God, into the house of God, and uses the Word of God to distort the truth of God and oppose the will of God. The…
Readers write: October 10, 2016 issue
‘Affluenza’ should trump ‘gender’ issue for Mennonites As community-oriented Anabaptists, we should be spending more time on “affluenza” than on the “gender” issue. Richard Rohr, the contemporary Franciscan monk, said it well: “Living in this consumer-driven world, we are all deeply infected by what some call ‘affluenza,’ a toxic and blinding disease with the basic…
Learning to follow the Jesus way
You obey every day. You obey the legislations of government—even those you don’t agree with. You obey an employer, school teacher or parent. Some have to heed all three on the same day. Much of life seems to be about some form of compliance, doesn’t it? And, as a general rule, we are more ready…
Becoming Mennonite
When I reflect on how I became a Mennonite, I find myself agreeing with what a peasant once told an Irish priest. The priest, who approached the peasant praying by the roadside, said, “You must be close to God!” The peasant replied in a way that points to the precedence of God’s love over our…
