As long-time readers will know, one of my favorite lines in all of literature comes from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago: “The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either — but right through every human heart — and through all human hearts.” It is a … Continue reading Hearts of Flesh (A Reflection on Ezekiel 11.14-25)
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
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
I haven’t posted anything on this site for a couple of weeks, but that has been for a good reason: I had a truly lovely twelve-day holiday and have been dealing with jet lag and a dastardly English cold since I got back Wednesday afternoon. I’ve written previously about the sacred dimension of rest, and … Continue reading Explore
Matthew Root 