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Creativity

PaintingsPoetry

A Walk

On Saturday, October 27th, 2003 – I got up early – with nervous anticipation – for a walk above St. Andrews. I had suggested getting together for a sip of conversation, but quoting Kierkegaard, you thought a walk in the deer park was preferable to coffee…
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March 30, 2020
PaintingsPoetry

Ebey’s Landing

A Prairie of emerald grass slopes softly towards the western bluff edging shoreline like golden crust. Once there, take the narrow path up to the wind sheared emerald forestspiraling toward the heavens like steeples,  or beachcomb rocky marginsto engineer forts with littered logs gathering like pocket lint from the…
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December 18, 2019
Prayers

A Christmas Prayer

A prayer given at Pillar Church in Holland, Michigan on December 24, 2018. God of Advent’s light, In the beginning, you hovered over chaos and from your imagination spoke a Word to order the dew of a new reality, a word voiced from the deep primordial darkness…
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December 24, 2018
Paintings

The Ride to Big Star

For years, in late August, I did a bike ride with my friends Jon VanDuinen, Dan Bolt, and Ryan Tanis up to a cottage on Big Star Lake in northern Michigan.  It was a 112 mile ride from Holland and we would have to get up…
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July 18, 2018
Prayers

Easter Prayer: Awake!

Christ… in rising from the dead you are revealed as no passive sufferer or victim, but rather the leaderwho pioneers humanityin the successful expedition into the Kingdom of God.   The Kingdom that has no boundary or wall;the Kingdom where every passport is stamped with your blood;The Kingdom where…
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April 1, 2018
Prayers

A Prayer for the People

Holy God, source of all that is good, true, and beautiful, reveal yourself to us.  We humbly bow before you, glorifying your name, which is above all names.   Remind us we are called to be your light to the world.  We are a people called…
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June 28, 2017
Paintings

The Way into the High Country

Every preacher as a line, a phrase, that they go back to again and again.  One of mine (and I have few!) is that Christ leads us into “the high country of the Trinity where the air is thin, but the glory is thick.”  This…
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April 17, 2017
Paintings

West Beach, Whidbey Island

Everyone has a spot.  A place where you go to remind yourself of something beautiful, a place to go when you feel sad, or need to reclaim perspective. When I was growing up, West Beach was that place for me.  It was part of my…
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January 5, 2017
Paintings

Summer Day at Wrigley

This is a painting I made for my son, Trygve, for his bedroom.  I wanted to try and capture the energy, the color, and and the leisure of a summer day at the grand ballpark in Chicago. Posted on Trygve's Facebook on April 20, 2020:…
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December 23, 2016
Following Christ in CollegeHope College ChapelPrayers

Fire

Gracious Holy Spirit, spark of the eternal Word, you hovered over chaos, then established order by first giving the world the fire of your presence. You, God’s flame, broke open the bright abyss… You, the Eternal light, ignited a desert bush… You, the Father’s breath,…
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October 6, 2016