Monthly Archives: February 2026

Lent2026

Length, Width, Volume

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Length: One dimensional

Length x Width= Area: Two dimensional

Length x Width x Height= Volume: Three dimensional

The number gets harder to calculate every time a dimension is added. Writing it down becomes necessary, and a calculator for checking the math (or doing the math in the first place!) is a good idea. After all, the table I’m building won’t come out right if my calculations are off. Putting dinner on the table in my three dimensional life is a whole lot better when that table is steady and solid.

I’ve been wondering if there’s a lesson here for my faith life. The length of it – how long I’ve walked this path. The width of it – The traditions and theologies that have shaped it – in good ways and some not-so-good ways. Those two can only get me so far. I need that third dimension for my faith to take it from a solo experience to something more, something vibrant. What is that third dimension?

Some call it the Body of Christ, others Church, still others the Spirit filled communion of Saints, as well as my favorite: the unbroken chain of prayer through time and place. It’s the living connection between and among those who seek to love God, Self, and Neighbor with who they are, what they have, and what they do. That’s the volume, the dimension that moves the two dimensional into the three, the plans and numbers on the blueprint into the table.

If the company he kept and the disciples he chose are any indication, Jesus found room at that table for any and all who wished to pull up a chair. I guess, in light of that, I can let go of my preferred guest list, be thankful for the table and the nourishment it holds, and do my best to love whomever shows up…

3D paper chair and table
Lent2026, Meditation

Added Dimension

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Plane: A geometric plane is a flat, two dimensional surface that extends infinitely in all directions, having length and width but no depth. Planes are made from three points that are not on the same line (non-collinear). Picture an endless piece of paper…

Picture life as a piece of paper. What do we do with this life, this piece of paper? Do we start with a blank sheet or is something of who we are already written upon it? Are we genetically predetermined to turn out a specific way, or are we shaped by the external forces that we experience? Or is it a combination of the two?

Philosophers, theologians, and scientists have pondered, debated, and fought over such questions, creating theories and intricate systems to support their particular answers. And those are entertaining and important (unless the arguments turn ugly and maim or claim lives – which happens with alarming frequency), as long as they are not mistaken for the life they seek to describe, define, and delineate. Because life is not a two dimensional plane, no matter the length or width of the treatises that have been written throughout history.

Picture life, and the years given us, as a piece of paper that is folded, shaped, gaining depth. Moved by the Spirit, infused with the Image of God from its inception, life becomes an expression of love and beauty. What shape will the folds of your life take, what holiness will be revealed?

The paper that is your life isn’t meant to be a two dimensional plane. It is a deep and holy origami.

Lent, Lent2026

Draw the Line

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Line: A perfectly straight, continuous path that is infinitely long, and has no width or thickness, representing a path of points extending forever in opposite directions…[also refers to marks, cords, queues, or sequences in various contexts].

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In mathematics, lines connect any two dots. Lines have no end and really no beginning, extending beyond the limits of imagination – that’s why arrows are added to their ends in mathematical problems.

If you begin at a point on a piece of paper, you can draw lines moving out from that point in different directions (technically, they are rays, not lines – but let’s not quibble). If you draw a landscape using the lines as guides, you get perspective – depth, three dimensionality, appears in a two dimensional space. If you are an artist, something of the wonder of whom/what you draw is offered to all who see it.

Spiritually speaking, everything begins in God – the origin of all life and lines. Scripture and icons draw lines, verbal and visual, from that beginning. They depict perspective (depth, dimensionality) that offers us something of the wonder of God. Maybe, just maybe, they draw us into the wonder of God, leaving behind on our very lives something that just may offer a glimpse of it to others.

Icon of Saint Matthew
Lent, Lent2026, Meditation, observation

Point of Reference

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Let’s begin with a point. Add a second point and we can connect them with a line. Add a third that doesn’t sit on the line and we’ll end up with a triangle when we connect them. Point, line, plane. Non-dimensional, one dimensional, two dimensional. These ideas are the foundation of geometry a la Euclid. There’s really no proof that a point, a line, and a plane exist, but assuming that they do makes all kinds of things possible – and makes it a lot easier to frame out a door, hang a picture, and build a skyscraper.

So what does this have to do with Lent, a time of letting go of what doesn’t matter and loving what does? What is the point, the line, and the plane – the foundation – in all this? Here are the three my faith life assumes:

Point: God is the source of all that is (seen and unseen)

Line: Jesus of Nazareth is God-With-Us

Plane: We are neither God nor Jesus, but we are related to both

Point, line, plane: God, Jesus, Us

And when I note the difference between you and me, when we become neighbors in this space, life goes from a two-dimensional idea to a three dimensional grace-filled reality.

Path, and perspective

[Note: Euclid was a mathematician in Ancient Greece, circa 300b.c. The foundations of geometry can be found in his Elements, as well as in other works.

Also Note: Euclidean geometry isn’t the only geometry. For space/time issues, Euclid and his assumptions give way to other foundations…]

Lent, Lent2026

Reality – or Just a Concept?

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Point, line, plane. Length, width, volume. Time, space, time/space. Spirit, eternity. Biology, Chemistry, Physics (Theology?). Faith, hope, love. Neighbor, self, God.

How do we understand our own reality? What words, concepts, and images provide the signposts that point us to what is most profoundly and truly real? In this time and in this place, these seem like good and necessary questions.

Next week, Mardi Gras beads and eating way too much rich food will usher in Lent – the time of reflection that is often mistaken for a self-inflicted punishment. At its most profound, this penitential season is meant to help us do two things: let go of what doesn’t matter and love what does.

Lenten words to live by…

So let’s take a look at reality – outer and inner. Let’s figure out what doesn’t matter, letting it go as best we can. Then, let’s figure out how to love what does…

New Year

Neighborly?

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Tiny Mister Rogers

Fred Rogers didn’t have a television show as much as he had a televised children’s ministry (he was an ordained Presbyterian minister). His goal was to offer a gentle space and time for fostering the spirits of all children. He made things with items found around the house – cardboard boxes and tubes, crayons, and construction paper. He kept a routine, providing stability every time he walked in the front door, took off his jacket, and put on his sweater and sneakers. Off the air, he was an advocate for children’s rights and the beneficial use of broadcast airtime.

This year, the opening theme to Mr Roger’s Neighborhood was featured in a Super Bowl ad for a mortgage company, complete with a pan-over of a neighborhood similar to the one that started the PBS show. Lady Gaga provided the vocals. It’s a lovely couple of vignettes that tug at the emotions, Redfin showing up on a phone at the start, with Rocket Mortgage and Own the Dream tagline at the end.

This isn’t the first time songs that defined and inspired generations have been used to sell products. Many artists have had their music featured in ads – The Rolling Stones and The Beatles come to mind. Willingly or unwillingly, artists find their music hawking all kinds of products. But something about hearing the opening to Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood hits in a different part of the heart and spirit. At least for me.

I’m convinced that the Holy Spirit is nowhere near as picky as I am when it comes to showing up. Love and the Sacred break into our world in the most ordinary and freaky places. If we have eyes to see and ears to hear, Love for Neighbor, Self, and God surrounds us.

If the Super Bowl ad convinces one person to reach out in love and service to someone else, does it matter that it was all meant to fill the company coffers?

What if the Super Bowl ad damages one soul because it equates being a neighbor with consumerism?

To learn more about Mr. Rogers, visit misterrogers.org

The Music
Meditation, New Year, observation
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Town Hall

Town Hall. It’s where residents go to pay taxes, register a dog, or talk with the town manager. But every Saturday, it becomes the backdrop for something with far-reaching intent and effect. On that empty sidewalk, hundreds gather for an hour to protest the inhumane policies enacted and carried out by federal agencies intent on frightening the citizens of this democracy into silence. Illegal searches and detentions; masked agents carrying weapons into peaceful streets and communities; smear campaigns against victims who died at the hands of undertrained and overzealous ICE agents. People make signs objecting to all of it. All ages from all neighborhoods gather and stand together.

It may not seem like a very effective way to stop the violations and the violence happening just down the street and throughout the country. But just such tactics have worked wonders in the past – in occupied India as well as in our own country a few decades back. Shedding light on actions that harm and holding the government and individual people accountable for their actions work far better in the long run than returning violence for violence. For true change that lasts, a better and more peaceful world is a goal achieved by better and more peaceful means.

So hold a sign, call a representative, attend a vigil. It may seem like it’s a waste of time, or at best a silly symbolic action. But it can be transformed into so much more…

But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. ICor. 1:27, NRSV

Nature, New Year

Seeds and Snapshots

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Feathered Neighbors

Today, it’s bluejays, wrens, and a couple of cardinals. Yesterday, woodpeckers titmice, grackles and juncos. Squirrels, every day. With flurries in the air and a wind chill below zero, some of my neighbors in need are feathered or furred. So I trudged through the snow a couple of hours ago to make sure they would eat today.

Just off the steps

I’m not a good or stealthy enough photographer to get a really good picture, so the majority of the birds are in the tree branches just out of sight. But they are all around, just out of the frame. What I capture on camera is so much smaller than what is here. In much the same way, my words are too poor to capture this life, this beauty of feathers and flight. The best I can hope for is that such words and images create a doorway into something larger. Evocative, not encompassing.

There are wonders just out of frame. All I have to do is walk through that frame and look…

[I think our holy scriptures, our rites, and our sacred images are meant to do the same – create a doorway through which the Spirit draws us into a much larger reality. Through them, we fall more deeply into God’s love and we are planted more firmly next to our neighbors – feathered or otherwise.]