MEMORY RESIDUE

Any Opportunity for the Incarnation

Today is Christmas Eve, and below I am posting a video containing one of the Christmas songs that I've written over the years. However, I use the word "Christmas" gently, lightheartedly and passionately all at once.Gently, because yes, I know the arguments behind the calendar days on which Christmas and Easter holidays occur as having pagan roots, I know the realistic theological and historical argument that Jesus was not born on December 25th. I use it gently because I don't want to come across as one who thinks that December 25th by its very nature is a magically holy day. It is a normal day that has been made holy, by the intentional and cultural meditation on [...]

By Joel|2014-08-18T22:34:43+00:00December 25th, 2011|Advent, Christian Music, Christianity, Incarnation, Jesus Christ, memories|

Coffee and Resting in Restlessness

Great are You, O Lord, and exceedingly worthy of praise; Your power is immense, and Your wisdom beyond reckoning. And so we men, who are a due part of your creation, long to praise You – we also carry our mortality about with us, carry the evidence of our sin and with it the proof that You thwart the proud. You arouse us so that praising You may bring us joy, because You have made us and drawn us to Yourself, and our heart is unquiet until it rests in You (Confessions of St. Augustine, Book 1, Chapter 1).This morning about 5:30 my baby girl awoke hungry, and since the past couple of days she's been [...]

By Joel|2014-08-18T22:34:43+00:00December 3rd, 2011|Advent|

My Beloved: Stacking Stones Part VIII

So, the twelfth stone on top of this Joshua 4 monument is a person, and that person is my wife. The last season on life and ministry would not have been what it was, and is, without her. I've learned so much about love and courage from her.I remember being a twenty-something mountain boy, staring up at the stars, contemplating that the starry sky, so unfathomable and huge, full of granduer, mystery, and stillness, was a similar display to the starry show that Abraham watched as G-d said, "Count them if you can...so shall your offspring be" (paraphrased Gen 15:5). And to think that (as the Rich Mullins song put it), "one star he saw had [...]

By Joel|2014-08-18T22:34:45+00:00November 29th, 2011|love and marriage, Stacking Stones|

Who Am I? : Stacking Stones Part VII

Who am I? Sounds like a loaded question. And depending on the day you might get a different answer. Yes, I am Joel. I want to be more Jesus than me. But usually I'm me. I used to think that my 20's were all about figuring who I am. Mostly, I found out who I'm not. Sometimes it was positive, sometimes it was not. I learned that I fell short of my ideals 98% of the time, during the other 2% I was just confused. Blessedly clueless. My eleventh stone in my Josh 4 monument is not that I figured out who I am. I've given up on that one. In my efforts to serve others [...]

By Joel|2014-08-18T22:34:45+00:00October 26th, 2011|memories, Stacking Stones|

Memoirs of a Visitor

Any Opportunity for the Incarnation

Coffee and Resting in Restlessness

My Beloved: Stacking Stones Part VIII

Who Am I? : Stacking Stones Part VII