The psalm for today tells us to wait. Now I don’t know if it’s because I am young and graduating soon from college, or simply human, but I am ready for the next things in my life to happen. I am ready to have an answer to the ever-recurring question, “What are you doing next year?” I am ready to know where I will live or what I will do or who I will meet in my ever-looming future.
Evergreen Advent
In the dead of winter, Violet Cemetery, near Goshen College, is one of the more beautiful places to go for a walk. All is quiet, so quiet, you can hear the icicles creak, glassy pins dropping to the snow-white comforter below. The billowy quilt spreads out across the ground, around every trunk, flung carelessly over gray tombstones as if to warm every grave. Only one color imposes itself against the backdrop of this study in contrasts. Small fir trees dot green across the white quilted ground like so many comforter knots, reminders that Mother root is still very much alive, gently tossing and turning beneath her frozen covers.
Flood of Mercy
In its life-giving power and in its sometimes frightening clean sweep, the image of a flood fits well with this season, which at the same time calls us to repentance and invites us into new life. If we’re honest, we have to admit that we sometimes hang on to things that don’t matter or last, things that may even get in the way of what God wants to do in us, in our communities and in our world — things we may need to let go. Yet God’s work is not about wiping things out simply to wipe them out. Even painful and difficult clearing away is for the sake of something bigger and truer, and it is always grounded in God’s overwhelming mercy, in God’s care and concern for all that God has made.
Welcome to Goshen College Advent Devotions 2012: Beginning Nov. 26
As churches prepare for the celebration of Christ’s birth, Goshen College offers an online spiritual resource to help believers make time and space in their hearts and minds to welcome Advent, even in the midst of busy schedules and hectic lives. Beginning Nov. 26 (the Monday prior to the first Sunday in Advent) and culminating … Keep reading »
April 8, Easter Sunday: The heavy lifting is done. Hallelujah!
By Gwen Gustafson-Zook, minister of worship DEVOTIONAL: Two downcast women, deep in grief and weighed down by pain and suffering, laboriously take one step at a time in the direction of their pain – unable to avoid the inevitable, unable to make sense of the senseless, unable to do anything other than that which they … Keep reading »
April 7: Believe that Jesus Christ IS Lord of all
By Liliana Ballge, financial aid assistant director DEVOTIONAL: I remember growing up in church hearing the stories about Jesus feeding the multitudes, healing the sick, making the lame man walk and bringing Lazarus back from the dead. I wondered how could a man perform such miracles. As a child, my wonder was more of an amazement … Keep reading »
April 6: The power of clean feet
By Ben Sutter, a senior history and communication double major from South Bend, Ind. DEVOTIONAL: Jesus does something incredibly curious as he’s sitting with his friends the night he’s arrested. He acts, as Jesus often does, in a way that causes us to pause. In John’s highly narrated account of Jesus’ last supper with his … Keep reading »
April 5: We lost Grandma during Lent
By Launa Rohrer, associate dean of students DEVOTIONAL: We lost Grandma during Lent this year. Growing up, staying at Grandma’s house was a treat. We had our routine. Breakfast always included homemade bread and vitamin C. Grandpa always read Scripture; Grandma read the meditation. Grandpa prayed for each child and grandchild before the day began. … Keep reading »
April 4: The need to be heard
By Leanna Teodosio, a sophomore sociology and Bible and religion double major from Lima, Ohio DEVOTIONAL: Have you ever really taken the time to listen to what a middle schooler had to say? There are some who call me crazy, but middle school is my favorite age group for a variety of reasons, including their … Keep reading »
April 3: Remember and reconcile
By Jodi H. Beyeler, assistant director of public relations DEVOTIONAL: As a kid, did your mom ever whisper to you when you left for summer camp, a sleepover or a date, “Don’t forget who you are and where you came from”? At the time, I thought that my mom just didn’t want me to embarrass … Keep reading »
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 53
- 54
- 55
- 56
- 57
- …
- 77
- Next Page »