Posts Tagged ‘Heaven’

In the Bathtub with a Jazz Musician and Beat Writer

The apartment I shared sat at the border of East Harlem and the Upper East Side. I lived in the spoiled girl’s version of the 1950s coldwater flats I read about in dogeared paperback—exposed brick walls, lack of a private bedroom but plenty of closet space, and–at least most of the time–hot...

June 26th, 2012 | Books, Essays | Read More

Ode to Dale and Mary

Dale and I became fast friends a few years ago because of our love for the music of that Missouri band of rural hippie farmers known as the Ozark Mountain Daredevils. Their song “Beauty in the River” is one of my favorite all-time hymns (of the “not-actually-a-hymn” variety). there’s a...

February 24th, 2012 | Arts, Music | Read More

Pet Heaven

“Welcome to our mid-week service,” the tiny old man in front of the pulpit spoke. The handful of people in the pews smiled back their greetings. Even Regina lifted her head, panted, then settled back down on the floor next to the old woman, Annie Williams, known to most of the congregation as Aunt...

November 15th, 2011 | Featured, Fiction | Read More

The Kingdom Belongs to Such as These? (Luke 18:15-17)

I am less concerned about whether there is a Hell or not, than I am about the supposedly agreed upon criteria for going – or not going – there. Most people that I know with – or without – faith presume that there are at least two solid truths about eternity; first, if there is a heaven, they...

June 8th, 2011 | Featured, Meditations | Read More

Rob Bell is Not A Universalist, and Love Really Does Win

It says a lot about the state of Christianity, that a 9.0 earthquake and devastating tsunami hit Japan last week, yet all we want to talk about is whether or not Rob Bell is going to hell. It says even more that many of the people initially claiming he was, (or at least bidding him farewell) hadn’t...

March 17th, 2011 | Books, Featured | Read More

It’s Time

Like the evening summer sun, my bronzed hands and forearms gently fade and pale. We both sense it, the sun and I. It’s fine. It’s time. We could rage against the dying, as some are prone to do, but why? Old John Donne believed it’s always autumn in heaven, no buds or flowers, only fruit fully ripe. I...

September 13th, 2010 | Featured, Fiction & Poetry, Poetry | Read More

Church Buildings: Tombstones for Eden and Declarations of Future Hope

“But many of the priests and Levites and heads of the Father’s houses, old men who had seen the first house, wept when they saw the foundation of this house being laid, though many shouted for joy, so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of...

April 11th, 2010 | Featured, Meditations | Read More

Buy or Rent…and What It Means for the Kingdom

Susan K. Dailey's "Long's Peak" A few years ago I spend some time in Colorado with my son, trying to climb Long’s Peak (and throwing up instead), and then climbing other, lesser peaks, and doing a little rock climbing. It was intended to be a sort of “vision quest”...

October 4th, 2009 | Featured, Meditations | Read More

All Dogs Go To Heaven

Some time ago, I read some sort of theological, very important book. And that book answered, along with many other questions, “Do animals go to heaven?” That answer was ‘no’. And my mind was blown. Not for any deep theological reason, you see. My mind was blown because WHO CARES?...

August 28th, 2008 | Blog | Read More