My next-to-last book was a collection of Sunday prayers, prayed in the hospital chapel where I’m a chaplain. Each Sunday, I interacted with the texts for the week and with God and with the people watching on the closed-circuit channel and the people reading at my blog.… Read More
Jen Bradbury. Called: A Novel about Youth Ministry Transitions. The Youth Cartel, 2020. I’ve known Jen for several years. We’ve worked on some research projects together. I asked her to write about one of my books. For me, she’s the person who asks me to… Read More
I’ve written about everyone else at a CODE BLUE–an event, usually in a hospital where a person’s heart has stopped and a team of people gathers to restart it. I wrote about how to talk with God about all the people who are gathering. When… Read More
The warning sound on the overhead paging system is heart-grabbing, starting at a low pitch, then quickly sliding higher. And then the words: “CODE BLUE Core Tower. 6th floor. CODE BLUE. Core Tower. 6th floor.” A few seconds later, pagers buzz with the room number. … Read More
I hate shots. I can’t watch other people get them. I turn my head all the time in the hospital when a needle shows up anywhere close to an arm. And choosing to receive flu shots has been a challenge, though I’ve done it. So when… Read More
I am a words guy. And I’m getting worse. My friends come to me for words sometimes. They are looking for the right word for a moment, for a situation. Sometimes, I confess, I inflict my struggle against imprecision on others. I care about words… Read More
We’re exhausted, many of us. We can’t quite figure out why. We can’t think as clearly as usual, we don’t have the motivation we used to. Our relationships are struggling, we’re more cranky. We think that there may be something wrong with us. But there… Read More
Dear friends. Some of you know that I see people who die, sometimes before, sometimes after. It’s what chaplains do at our place. In that process, I see diagnoses, I see cause of death. Sometimes it’s related to COVID-19. Sometimes it isn’t. This isn’t about… Read More
I led a funeral today for a guy I’ve known for several years. He and his wife attended the church where I worked at the time, and I was able to be with her just before he died last week. The funeral was at that… Read More
Dear person I care about who is going into the weekend (even if we have never met)- I sometimes tell people what to do or not do. That usually doesn’t work. Because no mom likes to meet a chaplain in the waiting room, or get… Read More
