Are you or your friends scared to face 2024? After everyone finished their reports on the December sicknesses last week, many people went on to report their anxiety about the coming year — for some it was more than anxiety, it was terror. I can see why they feel that way. The Trump effect has … Continue reading A meditation to help us face 2024
2023 Group communication “sad?” Try on some Virginia Satir. My new group reminded me of two things Virginia Satir taught me: 1) Tell your own story, 2) Be aware of your communication style. Slander divides: Six ways to overcome it Trump has unleashed a slanderfest. If it threatenes to swallow you, what are some things … Continue reading Top Ten Posts of 2023
In the summer of 2021, hot off the deepest trough of the pandemic, the first Taco Bell Defy store was unveiled. They called it “Defy” because it will “defy norms and define the future.” It is a 3,000-square-foot, two-story restaurant in a suburb of Minneapolis with four drive-thru lanes. Three of those lanes will be … Continue reading In this age of fear it is hold the pickles and the human contact.
I often need to study issues which show up with loved ones in my office. So I was studying how people experience dissociation. I paused to go out and see if the workers were finished with the new railings for our counseling offices. As I chatted with the general contractor, the boss of the metal … Continue reading Dissociation: Alive and unwell on the sidewalk and TikTok
At least three of my clients last week were talking about the end of the world. When the Circle Counseling therapists got together for their monthly meeting, I asked them if they had similar experiences. They not only had similar conversations with their clients, some of them personally sensed the same apocalyptic zeitgeist that worried … Continue reading Right now and forever: Life at the end of the world
Being chosen is a wonderful thing. The surprising hit show The Chosen films the feeling wonderfully, most of the time. Everyone who finds themselves chosen by God — including Jesus appreciating his own self-awareness, is thrilled with the pleasant absurdity of being noticed, appreciated and singled out. There is a lot of “why me?” voiced, … Continue reading Biden in Israel: The problem with being the chosen ones
When you are feeling good, like after being in the park last Wednesday or Thursday (!), you probably feel like something good is “emerging.” Maybe you feel like Tony singing “something’s coming” in Westside Story. Emergence is a constant we feel inside and experience coming at us. It is like catching a wave rippling through … Continue reading Emergence: New discoveries and new books enrich how we see the work of God
Is this really the Age of Anxiety? Maybe it is. On the Trinity Broadcasting Network a few days ago, former pastor and Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee opened his most recent episode by saying if former president Trump loses the 2024 election because of the many indictments grand juries have handed down concerning his behavior, “it … Continue reading Is more anxiety in the air? Or do we measure it better?
The good things Jesus creates and recreates in the world are always threatened by some power that wants to co-opt them or just eliminate their alternativity. The history of the church being co-opted keeps repeating itself. Way back in 1990 I had the amazing privilege to travel to Honduras and El Salvador with MCC where … Continue reading The sad history of Christians co-opted by the powerful
This was a message for the church in September of 2001, not long after 9/11 It happened again. I sat in front of MTV gape-jawed the other day. I flipped to it during the commercials on another channel and I happened upon a new video of an Elton John song called “I Want Love.” I … Continue reading Division Test : Rivalry poisons God’s farm