"I'm not afraid of marrying you," said the young groom. "I'm afraid of losing you."
grief
Who I'd invite to my writers' dinner party
Ordinary grace
The reversals in this book aren’t easy. There is nothing sentimental or giddy about them. They are real. They are ordinary.
Grief Is the Thing with Feathers, by Max Porter
Max Porter’s debut novel, which hovers between poetry and prose, illustrates the ways in which grief can be simultaneously violent and gentle.
Graphic grief
We grieve always alone while at the same time needing community. Surely there is a role for the church in this paradox.
For career day at my daughter's school, I brought pictures of some of the things pastors do. The students were mostly interested in the funerals.
Dying faithfully
Whether we're dying or living with grief, there are faithful ways to do so. Marilyn Chandler McEntyre points us in the right direction.
Jesus went slowly, purposefully into the eye of the storm. Only through the storm would he find what he was looking for.
Richard Niebuhr uses the metaphor of a shipwreck to describe those life experiences where what we thought would hold comes apart. A marriage ends, a career collapses, an illness shatters plans, a loved one dies. Pastors and congregations can be a lifeline. Our culture, however, is mourning avoidant—and too often, faith communities reflect the broader culture's misconceptions surrounding grief.