A couple summers ago my wife and I piled the kids into the minivan and headed West. It was to be our big vacation of the year – all the way to California coast. Why fly when the classic “road trip” offers so much more? More sites to see; more local cuisines to sample; more time together – the latter, of course, adding some emotional depth to the experience, one might say....
One of Evagrius’s lesser known writings is his Letter to Melania. A “Desert Mother,” Melania managed a monastery in Jerusalem and is credited with inspiring Evagrius to embrace a monastic life in the Egyptian desert. In this eloquent and tender letter, Evagrius expounds on some of his mystical, “gnostic” insights–he had come to understand creation itself as a love letter, chronicling God’s desire for us. “Just as those who teach the alphabet to children trace the letters on tablets, so too, Christ, in order to teach his wisdom to the rational beings, has inscribed it into corporeal nature” (Harmless, William....
Last weekend I partnered with Christ Episcopal Church and Second Baptist Church to lead a group of twelve hikers on a three-day, 25-mile trek on the Buffalo River Trail. The theme was “Hiking with C.S. Lewis,” drawing on the revered Anglican thinker’s wisdom as a prompt for discussion and reflection around the fire each evening. Our multi-generational group of disciples shared much over the weekend. For some this was a new experience, having never put up a tent before or felt the dull ache in the shoulders from hauling a heavy pack up and down the contours of the Ozark Mountains....
After roughly sixteen hours of biking the 200 km Fat Pursuit in the Rocky Mountain winter, when falling snow began to rapidly accumulate during the long, dark climb up Two Top Mountain, the going got rough soft. So soft, in fact, that “riding” might be too generous a term for what I was doing. It was actually more like plodding, weaving, wobbling, spinning…and crashing. And, I’d say I got quite good at it....
The last time I saw Matt Beedle was a dozen years ago at his wedding. I was a newlywed myself and Kate was pregnant with Luke at the time. My third year of seminary was about to start and, as such, Matt and Amy figured I had been trained up enough to preach the homily. If I recall, the Gospel that day was the story of the transfiguration on the mountaintop – a fitting theme for our relationship....