Not Like D. Bowie's - It's Different Than That

            A number of years ago at my home church in San Diego, they built an outdoor labyrinth in the back corner of the church property. I walked by it often. I knew it was used for prayer, but I was always suspicious that it was syncretistic, melding some sort of weird spirituality into Christian prayer. Why do we have a labyrinth?

            It was with this same curiosity that I stood on the pebble mat on Monday and breathed deep, holding a question in my mind like a fragile egg, trying to prepare myself for the experience. I took a

Tornadoooooo

It started raining when I walked to worship this morning. It was really nice, actually. Just enough rain to be interesting, to keep me cool, to say that I had walked in the rain.

But it wasn't until after worship, talking with others in the fellowship hall that the pastor announced, "Everyone, there is a tornado watch and all church activities for the day are cancelled!"

What? Tornado? Coming from the West Coast, tornadoes are just plot mechanisms for fairy tales. But no, he was serious. Huh ... wonder what this will be like.

Do Not Hinder Them

The chapel at Western Theological Seminary is a welcoming place. Warm light pours over the bread and the wine on the table in the center of the room. Little puddlets of water sit childlike at the foot of the font, where some had splashed during the vigorous acoustic pouring. The way all the chairs are circled around the table allow me to see the body of Christ (not just in the bread and wine but) in the people sitting across from me.