One of my favorite stories: A salesman was driving through the country on his way to his next appointment. He took a curve too fast and ended up in the ditch. He had no cell service to call AAA, and was cursing his luck when he looked over the field next to the road and saw an … [Read more...] about Don’t do it by yourself.
The most important thing to learn
In a meeting with an intern a while back, she complained that the things she was studying in school didn’t seem relevant to our work. “After all”, she said, “how often do we use algebra here?”I told her she was missing the point. You don’t go to school to learn things. Not … [Read more...] about The most important thing to learn
Plod on, brother. Plod on.
I have written about this story several times, but my blog post about it got lost in the website redesign. Because it is so important to me, I am republishing it here. - HH It was January of 2008. I had been doing this work for about five months or so, and I was already burnt … [Read more...] about Plod on, brother. Plod on.
The Twitter Cleanup
In one of her Lord Peter Whimsy books, Dorothy Sayers has Whimsy talk about books in a person’s library. He says that they mark a person’s history and are markers of their journey – that we move from book to book like a hermit crab outgrowing its shell, leaving the old husk … [Read more...] about The Twitter Cleanup
Dave Comes Home
A story from within the life of my community. The first time Dave came to church, he was pretty tentative. Frank, a regular attendee, had pretty much drug him there, and Dave was looking a lot like someone who had been drug there. He was fine before the service started, but … [Read more...] about Dave Comes Home
The difference between your job and your calling
I don’t understand why it happens, but it does. People ask me for career advice. All the time. Even people who make a lot more money than I do. Especially, it seems, people who make a lot more money than I do. Which, I think, is why they are drawn to me. I am obviously not … [Read more...] about The difference between your job and your calling
Kill Your Darlings
"Read over your compositions, and where ever you meet with a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out." - Samuel Johnson Most of what I write never gets published anywhere. Most of it gets deleted, gone forever. But sometimes I will like a passage a bit too … [Read more...] about Kill Your Darlings
God didn’t make America
Lord almighty, the prayers that will be offered up today, asking God to bless us. When the idolatry of America worship gets to be too much to bear, I re-read this passage from Will Campbell. # # # "I believe God made the St. Lawrence River, and the Rio Grande River, and the … [Read more...] about God didn’t make America
Nobody has a right to all of you.
I recently changed the way I use Facebook. I deleted my personal account that had several thousand “friends”- most of whom I never knew in real life - and started over, this time only friending people I knew, liked and had spent time with. I also made the decision to not friend … [Read more...] about Nobody has a right to all of you.
Praying for our enemies
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us to pray for those who persecute us, and to love our enemies. Yeah. I'm not always good at that part, either. But I want to be. And I know it isn't impossible to do it, because others have done it. For example, Bishop Nikolai … [Read more...] about Praying for our enemies