A member of the congregation I serve died a couple of weeks ago. It was awful. Many of the networks of people and many of the feelings surrounding their untimely death has left the congregation, their friends, and me very unsettled. They’re’s grief, confusion, anger, exhaustion, anxiety, and a whole lot of really unknown feelings. […]
Suicide Prevention: Saving Pastors’ Lives
Mental health challenges are more personal than ever before because of the collision of the COVID-19 pandemic, racial unrest, political unrest, and economic uncertainty. Now pastors are navigating not only the mental wellness of members of their congregations but also daily stressors that put their own mental wellbeing in jeopardy. Pastors in America today are […]
Perfect Storm
It is late Sunday afternoon. The sky is still an angry gray with a gentle drizzle of rain, more of a mist really, still falling on the grass. There is a slight rumble of thunder in the distance, but hardly a leaf is moving in the stillness left behind by what turned out to be […]
On the Brink …of Summer
For me, it is a lake in Western Maine. There is a boat house there, where I find repose. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). A simple dock stretches out into the lake. I lay on my stomach, and stare into the clear […]