Three summers ago, we woke at 3:30am, packed up our camping gear and hiked out of the Grand Canyon. Following the park ranger’s advice, we left Phantom Ranch by 4am. in order to beat the projected 120 degree temperature. Down in a 7,000 foot canyon it is dark at 4am. Being able to see the […]
Author Archives: paulrpurdue
God’s calling of Moses is shaped by forces that fit our moment: me too, immigration, and racial tension. Do you recall Moses’ story? Remember how Moses’ ingenious mother defied Pharaoh’s genocide by weaving a little ark? Or how an Egyptian princess drew the beautiful child’s basket out of the Nile River? And how Miriam, hiding […]
13 rusted specialty drill bits (masonry) 7 water stained photos in antique frames 2 hundred year old wooden trunks, which now look like they washed ashore Not even one room’s hardwood floors survived the ruptured water line’s flood… Soaked, buckled, removed and tossed into a big blue driveway dumpster. Last week, Connie and I […]
Looking for God, Neighbors, and Ourselves Psalm 8, Luke 19:1-6, 21:1-2 I want to begin today by playing a little game. I’m going to read some quotes and I want to see if you can guess what they are about. A very well respected philosopher claimed this will surely “create forgetfulness in the learners’ souls, […]
Do you ever feel a chirp of incompleteness, that nagging tug of the next thing, not enough time, the need to measure up, add another, get that, achieve like…, or not miss out? Our media saturated marketed driven world plays up incompleteness to buy our attention and sell us stuff. They amplify our perceived need […]
In May of 2020, the United Methodist Church General Conference will bring together delegates representing the 136 countries that are a part of our worldwide denominational communion. Our own, Rev. Marie King is one of those delegates. Jacob Vaughan, Jefferson Furtado, Linda Furtado and I will be alternates there as well. The gathering will consider […]
In retirement, my notoriously frugal parents went on vacation for many years with equally frugal friends. On their first morning in Florida, the condo’s clock radio began blaring AC-DC at 4:30am. Jarred awake, in unfamiliar terrain, Dad struggled for his glasses, detangled his c-pap and fumbled for the mute button. You should know, my Dad […]
Eight children and eight adults sat along Mount Leconte’s cliff-tops watching the sun receding over the Smokies. It was so spectacularly beautiful. The sun hung full, pale, orange, and low over the Smoky Mountains until meeting the horizon when it squished together and disappeared. A thousand fading streams of lilac and gold slowly turned to […]
There are twelve chapters of context before we get to the pinnacle of the Apostle Paul’s writing, 1 Corinthians 13. Paul, along with Priscilla and Aquila, worked in Corinth for at least 18 months planting the church that he writes to. The larger church did not save the Corinthians’ letters to Paul, but Paul’s letters […]
During my Monday morning devotional time: El Paso, Dayton, Charlestown, Boston, Antioch kept clouding my prayers. Most Mondays, I dive into the week’s Scriptures. This Monday, nothing seemed to happen. The news haunted my holy space. After conversation with Kate, Heather, Darren and Gayle I knew this lament was not just my own. Lament […]
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