Pastor Tom's Community

Some songs to God are full of complaints, pleas, and desperate cries resolving themselves in faith. That is especially true when the psalmist is weighed down by the burden of assaults by his critics. The temptation is not to sing those songs because they are not holy enough, not pious enough, rough, raw, guttural, and…

There is a stinging indictment here that I, and thousands of preachers can do well to heed today. Jeremiah conveys a sobering issue. Prophets who declare their own dreams and interpretations infallible and speak words of false assurance that do no profit the people. Those who speak to us and say that suffering is bad…

We are here today, standing on a rolling ball, trying to maintain our balance yet balanced by an unseen hand.We are suspended between the ground beneath and the sky above and somehow unimpressed.We are ever bumping into one another and looking the other way with muttered apologies for living.We see through and around and over…

Living and working on a shoestring, we are often drawn into a mood of want, breathing the air of scarcity, and singing the song of a beggar. Developing big dreams on a shoestring requires an elevated level of commitment. When you are short on resources, you must draw on something else, something deep and limitless.…

  We dream; we grow;We move; we flow;We laugh; we glow.While here below,We live in anticipationOf pomp and circumstanceAnd graduation.We are matriculated in the school of lifeArticulated by toil and tears and strife.We are students of all that passesWork and play, day by day, our classes.We are classmates with our fellow creatures.These also are our…

"It is in dying that we are born to eternal life." – Prayer of St. Francis So, let me die today and die daily.There is nothing in my instincts to pray such a prayer.But then, there is nothing in my instinctual drive to cling …… to extinct-ual or… extinguishable"living" thatlives beyond the moment.I pray to…

  Judge – The defendant will rise.Defendant – Yes sir, Your Honor.Judge – This court finds you not-guilty of the charge of Grand Larceny.Defendant – Thank you, Your Honor. Does that mean I can keep the watch? Beloved, you do not ultimately answer to me for who you are. I am not your judge. I…