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For Wilshire Baptist Church

We hung bunting on the front porch railing for the July Fourth holiday. This is the third or fourth year we’ve done that, and it always begins with a question: “Now . . . where did we put the bunting when we took it down last year?” And once we answer that question — in a box in the attic — then comes the second question: “How do we rig this?” Because, while the bunting has grommets, it doesn’t have ties. We’ve had to invent a way to hang it so that it doesn’t bunch up and look like we’re just drying our laundry on the porch railing, and so that it doesn’t flop backward over the railing where it can’t be seen. Continue reading “Red, White and Turquoise”

For Wilshire Baptist Church

“Tell President Trump to mind his own business.”

“See if you can straighten those people out.”

Those were the pre-travel instructions given by my father and LeAnn’s mother, respectively, the day before LeAnn and I left for a week in Washington, D.C. They simply echoed the restlessness and political fatigue of so many of us, and their words sounded like a sort of secular missionary commissioning. Continue reading “Peace, Be Still”

For Wilshire Baptist Church

In case you didn’t read the news, the birds chirping at each other from either side of the birdbath are having a two-way conversation. So are those dogs sending barks back and forth across the street. According to a new study published by scientists in Europe, elephants, frogs, birds, fireflies and many creatures large and small perform what is called “turn-taking” conversation – like what we do across the dinner table if we’re actually taking turns, if we’re actually listening to each other instead of checking our texts or looking at the ballgame on the video screen. Continue reading “Listening in the Gap”