I was once walking in the coastal rainforests of British Columbia with a friend, when he suddenly stopped, looked up, and said “God lives here.” Now my friend didn’t actually think that he had stumbled across the dwelling-place of the Almighty; nor did he mean it in an animistic, ‘tree spirits, gods of the forest’ … Continue reading Spirituality
In the climactic scene of the book of Exodus, Moses meets God and demands to know God’s name. God answers with the name “YHWH.” The name is a mystery, and not just because its vowels have been lost to history. It’s a mystery because it’s really no name at all. It means something like “I … Continue reading Own it
The Gospel reading today is one of Jesus’ famous “I AM” parables, and it’s always been one of my favorites: “I am the vine, you are the branches.” It’s a beautiful image of what it means to be united with God and of God’s sustaining energies that flow through us. But, as I was reminded … Continue reading Under the Shears (A reflection on John 15.1-8)
The other day a friend of mine (who has given me permission to share this) was talking about her mixed feelings about whether or not she wanted to have kids. She’d long said she didn’t want children but realized one day that it wasn’t so much that she didn’t want to be a mother as … Continue reading Freedom for?
You can’t judge someone until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes. So says the conventional wisdom, and this is a (rare) case where the conventional wisdom is right. This proverb understands the truth that to understand someone’s behaviour we need to understand their experiences: their history, joys, traumas, motivations, hopes and dreams. As it … Continue reading Judgment
Matthew Root 