God of sea and dry land,God of Nineveh, Bethlehemand the belly of the whale,God of heights, God of depths,God of my darkest abyss:I have mademyself my god.I mustbecomeNothing.YoumustbecomeAll.I have blocked the channels whereYou reach me in my darkest hour.I have clenched my fist to fightin place of Your hand charged with life.I must go I-don’t-know-wheretoContinue reading “Advent with the Prophet Jonah: Day 6”
Category Archives: Advent
Advent with the Prophet Jonah: Day 5
The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?” “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come uponContinue reading “Advent with the Prophet Jonah: Day 5”
Advent with the Prophet Jonah: Day 4
Then the sailors said to each other, “Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.” They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. So they asked him, “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What kind of work do you do? Where do you comeContinue reading “Advent with the Prophet Jonah: Day 4”
Advent with the Prophet Jonah Day 3
Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay downContinue reading “Advent with the Prophet Jonah Day 3”
Advent with the prophet Jonah: Day 2
The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.” But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailedContinue reading “Advent with the prophet Jonah: Day 2”
The Rage of Being Flesh: Advent with the prophet Jonah
But God said to Jonah, “Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?” “I do,” he said. “I am angry enough to die.”(Jonah 4:9) Advent devotionals do not usually start here, with the prophet Jonah angrily beneath his vine, wanting to see Ninevah destroyed and his vine restored. But I’m beginning hereContinue reading “The Rage of Being Flesh: Advent with the prophet Jonah”
Advent 24: Incarnate
Christmas hath a darkness Brighter than the blazing noon… (Christina Rossetti, “Christmas Eve”) Minutes before the shops shut, I walked supermarket aisles with other forgetful ones, gleaning the last sheaves of festive cheer while the muzak paused to say it was time. And two millennia ago, a carpenter and his pregnant bride found themselves strappedContinue reading “Advent 24: Incarnate”
Advent 23: In Darkness
…he hath made me to dwell in darkness, as those that have been long dead.(Psalm 143:3 KJV) One Christmas,my brother and I sleeping onfold-out beds in our grandparents’ living room,I found myself awakewell past the usual hour, andmy thoughts like the room plungedin obsessive black, savefor a red electric glow from someunidentified source, I knewContinue reading “Advent 23: In Darkness”
Advent 22: Remember your last end
But for now, in what passes as daylight, remember night: remember those who dwell in night, remember the night that lies before those who fail to remember the light. Remember the absence of memory or light, remember the path out of darkness tonight.
Advent 21: Neither slumber nor sleep
In a creaking house for family feasting, I satas summer light streamed through leadlight doors andcracks in curtains,fairy lights twinkling on pine tree whileI rocked my youngest, disrupted bythe change of place, his olderbrother’s noise and the stubborn light,and tried to make a darkness conduciveto an eight-month child’s much-needed sleep,and fancied the Fatherkeeping vigil byContinue reading “Advent 21: Neither slumber nor sleep”
The Consolations of Writing 