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liturgical year

Unless a Seed Falls: John 12:20-36

Even I have to admit, it looks terrible: broken, rotting stalks, bare dirt, no happy winged visitors. I tell myself there are over-wintering insects in there, that native roots are strong, that spring is coming. But right now: stillness, death.
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February 24, 2024
artstheology

Blessed Unrest

We often wonder what God is calling us to do in a particular moment or passage of life. Could we ask ourselves, in such moments, “What is my blessed unrest here?”
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January 27, 2024
artsCalvin events

The Festival Geek Recommends

My colleague Jennifer Holberg got a head start on me last November by recommending some authors who will be featured at the Calvin Festival of Faith and Writing–now a mere ten weeks away! In case you are new to this glorious phenomenon, the Festival is…
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February 6, 2016
artscollege life

Doing Something Else

Calvin College, where I teach, faced another brutal round of budget cuts this fall, and not surprisingly, the arts took a hard hit. I lament this deeply, though I’m not complaining. I understand all the exigencies behind it, and I gratefully acknowledge that the process…
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January 9, 2016
silly

Rejected Christmas Carols

If the joy of Christmas ever breaks through the frenzy of event-going and present-wrangling and (for me) end-of-semester grading, it happens through music. This year, for instance, I sat in my city’s gorgeous basilica and listened to a youth choir perform a haunting, dissonant arrangement…
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December 26, 2015