Category Archive

Have you ever felt like you let somebody down? A spouse, a friend, a colleague? It is not the best feeling in the world, especially when you had boasted how they could, beyond a shadow of a doubt, depend on you. (I will never let you know!) You said you could be trusted and you wouldn’t let them down, but you did. To disappoint someone you love hurts, and to disappoint someone who loves you hurts even more. Has this ever happened to you? I know the feeling, and it hurts and fills you with sadness and a heavy burden of guilt. This is hard because you can’t hide from yourself. You must look in the mirror every morning and … Read More

We often judge people by one mistake. We never let them forget it. Further, we never let the world forget it. We tend to forget the good as soon as something goes wrong. That is unfair and very unhelpful. This is what happened to Thomas, one of the twelve disciples. He is not remembered for all the times he was brave and confident in his faith, but for the one time he doubted. Today, when someone is skeptical, we call that person a Doubting Thomas. Very unfair because Thomas was one of the most steadfast and loyal apostles among the Twelve. (Did you know that? How many times have we wrongly judged someone too!) Today, we will learn from one … Read More

So many times, we get overwhelmed when plans and dreams don’t go our way, and we end up disappointed, perhaps even broken –figuratively and literally. And at such times, some give up and decide to renounce what we were confident was God’s plan for us and stop working altogether for it. And, often, we let the opposition, the intimidation, the confusion, and doubt determined our perception of ourselves and life as a whole: we tell ourselves you are not beautiful, you are not worthy, you are not who you thought you were meant to be. This hurts deeply. To most people, it happens in our 30s and 40s, but it can happen to anyone at any time. Has it happened … Read More

It has been a year since our lives changed dramatically due to the virus. A lot has happened since then. Perhaps there is a sense of nostalgia or grief, of sadness and even anger as we may think about our losses since then. For many of us, it is hard to know what to do, how to feel, how to think when everything happening around you does not make any sense. Many of us have experienced this, and sometimes we are tempted to give up and stop believing that life would get any better. Why wouldn’t we? How couldn’t we? Under our circumstances when we look to the past is difficult to imagine a better future. But there is always … Read More

Let’s read from Luke 23:33-43 (NRSV). This is the story of the crucifixion of Jesus: When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” He replied, “Truly I … Read More