Like many of you, I’ve been heartbroken this week. It is hard to imagine Easter arriving by Sunday, but I was also reminded that heartbreak is our natural companion during Holy Week. Any words I could offer feel inadequate, but silence too seems insufficient. I was reading the traditional seven last words of Christ, which…
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When I lived in Honduras, the streets of the town would be decorated for Semana Santa, Holy Week. The long street up to the cathedral door was impossibly pocked with holes and rocks, and in the rainy season, normally sloshed with mud. But for Palm Sunday, it was transformed by the creation of alfombras or…
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Supposedly Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote his book, Between the World and Me for his son. But I’m not sure that’s accurate. In fact, I’m pretty sure he wrote it for me. As I look back through my copy of Between the World and Me I can’t help but notice that I had underlined significant passages on…
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In the fall we completed an All-Church Survey that helped to discern three priorities the congregation has for the direction of our life together over the next three years. Those priorities named by UCG respondents to the Survey had to do with justice action around race, poverty, and the environment; care and nurture of the…
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I have started taking the long way to get places. I don’t go too far off course, but if I can head a couple blocks in the wrong direction before I loop back toward home or the office, I’ll do it. Since adding a baby to my life, it can feel like any time I’m…
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Over the past many months, artists from around the world have been transforming our city walls into giant works of art here in Gainesville, Florida. 352walls has transformed many of our downtown buildings into eye-catching, mind blowing and head scratching murals that have done much to inspire the imagination and spark the curiosity of the…
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Over the last few months I’ve been acutely awake to and aware of a phenomenon that is ever-present in my life–the goodness and dedication of volunteers. Here at UCG, Andy, Vince, and I have the privilege of working as resource ministers with various boards or committees that meet regularly and conduct the business of and…
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“No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light.” – Luke 33:11 When I took my twin five-year old nieces down to the beach on Thanksgiving, I…
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When my father passed away the September before last (has it really been so long?), a good friend gave me a very special devotional book. I have read it often and more often than not the daily selections strike a chord in me that I haven’t heard in a long time; chords that sound good…
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Truth be told, I make quite a few resolutions throughout the year. The many changes I intend cannot wait until the last day of December–so all year I need to offer myself “helpful” advice and make renewed commitments to change my lifestyle to include the healthy habits I believe in. I turn over not just…
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I’m a lucky fellow because I love my job. Sure, it has its frustrating moments- but on the whole I get to do the things I love with people I love in a place that I love. It doesn’t get any better than that. And this Advent season, I feel that love ten-fold. As the…
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