Spring has come early to my neck of the woods. Winter’s icy chill has long since melted before spring’s warm, gentle breezes, causing the mountainsides to burst forth with color. Last evening, my wife and I were looking forward to going to a nearby park to walk and let our daughter run around on the jungle gym. On the way out of our apartment door, I saw our neighbor’s car still parked in the parking lot. A moment of compassion came over me as I thought of how lonely it must be to be an older single woman who lives all alone. She was so alone, that her car was in the parking lot on a Friday night because she had nowhere to go and no one to be with. Instead of letting this moment of sympathy fade away like I normally do, I turned around, walked to our neighbor’s door and invited her to join our family on our excursion to the park.

I would like to think that I do things like this all the time. The truth is, I don’t. Sadly, last night was a very rare exception. In fact,...

Continue Reading

During a recent Sunday sermon, our pastor was speaking on the topic of community. Community has always been an important part of ECSW’s formation framework. But as I was sitting there that Sunday, I realized that the community element of our model is perhaps the hardest one for many people to connect to the formation process.

Why is that? What does “community” bring to the spiritual formation process?

The easy answer is that real community is relationship in action. As relational beings, there is a part of us that needs the interaction that comes from being with others. But what comes from a rich community of meaningful relationships?

Debbie turned me on to...

Continue Reading

One morning over a year ago, I woke up hard pressed on every side. Not a great way to start the day. I could not shake the thoughts and feelings that were pressing in. I had recently given a great deal of thought and prayer time to the topic of sin. This is not a pleasant topic to contemplate. I was more than a little irritated that I could not simply decide I was done thinking about it and turn my mind off to it. But no matter how hard I tried, I could not.

In an effort to avoid making everyone's day miserable, I headed to my office to spend some focused time talking with God about...

Continue Reading

I've watched a series on cable called "Hoarders". It essentially shows the clean-up process of house filth beyond what’s imaginable. It is this provocative element which initially draws you in. The real story, however, is about the person doing the hoarding. As each episode begins the hoarders general story is told. You are introduced to both an organizer and a therapist who will work alongside the main character.

In each case the therapist peels back the reality that the hoarders, who they find are living in the midst of clutter, old food, and oftentimes bugs, are ones who have experienced some type of trauma.  This trauma results in paralyzing fear and anxiety. In each case, the therapist...

Continue Reading