All posts by Johnna

I am a Christian educator and writer.I have worked in churches, denominational offices, and seminaries. I have a PhD in Theology from Princeton Theological Seminary, with a focus on Practical Theology and educating in faith. In 2010, my book, "How the Other Half Lives: the challenges facing clergy spouses and partners," was published by Pilgrim Press. I believe that words can build doorways that lead to encounters with God through the Spirit.
Advent, Advent 2025, art, Biblical Reflection

Freed

2 Comments

Daily Readings: Psalm 124; Isaiah 54:1-10; Matthew 24:23-35

If God hadn’t been for us – all together, now, Israel, sing out! –

If God hadn’t been for us when everyone else went against us, we would have been swallowed alive by their violent anger, swept away by the flood of rage, drowned in the torrent;

We would have lost our lives in the wild, raging water.

Oh, blessed be God! He didn’t go off and leave us. He didn’t abandon us defenseless, helpless as a rabbit in a pack of snarling dogs.

We’ve flown free from their fangs, free of their traps, free as a bird. Their grip is broken; we’re free as a bird in flight.

God’s strong name is our help, the same God who made heaven and earth. Psalm 124, The Message

Breaking Free by Riley Anderson

Have you ever felt this: pinned down, unable to move or free yourself? It’s awful to be tangled in a snare, unable to escape into safety.

Have you ever experienced this: someone freeing you so that you can fly again? It’s miraculous when freedom comes instead of pain and death.

Freeing the captives of their snares so that they can take flight. It’s as good an explanation of why God chose to enter human life as any I can think of…

Image by Riley Anderson, in whom God delights (reposted from 2016).

Advent, Advent 2025, Biblical Reflection, Meditation

Responsible

Leave a comment

Daily Readings: Psalm 124; Genesis 9:1-17; Hebrews 11:32-40

God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. The fear and dread of you shall rest on every animal of the earth and on every bird of the air, on everything that creeps on the ground and on all the fish of the sea; into your hand they are delivered. Genesis 9:1-2, NRSV

God blessed Noah and his sons: He said, “Prosper! Reproduce! Fill the Earth! Every living creature – birds, animals, fish – will fall under your spell and be afraid of you. You’re responsible for them. Genesis 9:1-3a, The Message

The living things we claim also claim us. We are responsible for the animals in our lives. When we bring home that new puppy or kitten, when we buy the tank and the goldfish, we take on the responsibility to feed them, keep them healthy, and offer them our love and attention. Because they depend on us, we must be dependable. It takes time and resources, and a lot of affection, to be responsible.

Franklin

The same holds true for the animals who feed and clothe us. We are responsible for providing them with good lives, with adequate food, shelter, and space to live well before they end up on our tables. This, too, costs – either a price tag at the grocery store or the effort and resources to raise them ourselves.

The animals that nourish us – emotionally or physically – are connected to who we are in a spiritual sense (As are the plants and other humans). We are part of a great, sacred whole. When we act responsibly, we bless creation. When we do not, we harm not only the animals we treat poorly: we harm creation and our own lives. Let’s not do that.

Ebbtide
Advent 2025, Advent 2025, Biblical Reflection

But God Remembered…

4 Comments

Daily Readings: Psalm 124; Genesis 8:1-19; Romans 6:1-11

But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and all the domestic animals that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth and the waters subsided; the fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained, and the waters gradually receded from the earth.

Genesis 8:1-3a, NRSV

But God Remembered…

That word but confronts all those times we feel forgotten and forsaken, all those times our spirits are low and our hope is all but gone. There are those times in life when it is hard to gather the energy we need to keep on going, all but impossible to endure the tribulations that confront us. It is then that the word but is important. It means despite what we have endured, regardless of how we feel, there is another possibility for us.

But God remembered…

That possibility rests in the remembering of God. God remembers the care with which our world and everything in it—all creation—were formed. God remembers that it was good. And God remembers us. That is good, too. What makes it even better is that God’s remembering isn’t just about the past. It also leads to the future—and a promise. God’s promise was a promise to care. That caring came in a pledge that As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease (Genesis 8:22).

It may seem strange to begin the season of Advent reflecting on Genesis. But there is a thread that ties the two together, a thread that runs through the entire Bible. Advent is a time for us to remember—to remember that God remembered and still does. God remembered Noah; God remembered people in need of a savior; God remembers us and our need for a savior. Advent is a time for us to remember God’s remembering. It is only when we do so that we can prepare ourselves to fully receive that great gift of Christ.

Remember.

Offered by Jeff Jones, in whom God delights.

Biblical Reflection

Fill or Fulfill?

4 Comments

Daily Readings: Isaiah 2:1-5; Psalm 122; Romans 13:11-14; Matthew 24:36-44

But make sure you don’t get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of your day-by-day obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God. The night is about over, dawn is about to break. Be up and awake to what God is doing! God is putting the finishing touches on the salvation work he began when we first believed. We can’t afford to waste a minute, must not squander these precious daylight hours in frivolity and indulgence, in bickering and grabbing everything in sight. Get out of bed and get dressed! Don’t loiter and linger, waiting until the very last minute. Dress yourselves in Christ, and be up and about!

Romans 13:11-14, The Message

[The Message, Translation by Eugene H. Peterson, NavPress, 1993]

What am I doing with the days (weeks, months, years, decades) I’ve been given? Do I waste time on imaginary arguments and petty grudges? Do I forget to look into the eyes of the people I love most in this world, mumbling hello or goodbye as if I have an endless supply of comings and goings? Am I sleepwalking through life, unaware and uninterested in the sacred something more on offer every minute of every day?

My yearly wake-up call begins today: Advent. The time to get up, get dressed, and set out on the road to Bethlehem is now. Not tomorrow, not when it’s more convenient. NOW.

Am I going to settle for filling up my time, or do I want to live into the fulfillment of God’s love? Fill or fulfill?

Lord, give me enough sense and enough courage to step onto your sacred path and keep walking. Amen.

Advent, Advent 2025

Once More, With Joy

Leave a comment

It’s starting tomorrow – the yearly journey of Advent. Daily readings, images, reflections, prayers, and poems mark the way to the incarnation: God With Us. We’ll never understand the mystery of why God chose to be with us in Jesus, son of Mary. But if we put in a little time and effort, we might just catch a glimpse – not because we become one with the mind of God, but because we might see more fully the Us in God With Us.

You and I weren’t given life to fulfill a particular role, earn a living, give birth or raise others – at least not in a definitive way. All of those aspects can challenge us and give us a sense of accomplishment (or failure), but none are big enough to contain the mystery that we ourselves are.

We are here because we are beloved children of the one who made and continues to make all things.

We are here because no one else can bring what we bring to life in this time and place.

Mostly, we are here because we are a delight to God (even when we aren’t being particularly delightful or delighted).

This year, I invite you to try something new. At the beginning of each day, before life’s obligations and business begin, remember who you are. If it helps, whisper this truth:

I am (insert name here), in whom God delights.

Welcome to Advent.

Meditation, Thanksgiving

Taking Turns

Leave a comment

‘Tis the gift to be simple, ’tis the gift to be free,

’tis the gift to come down where we ought to be

and when we find ourselves in the place just right

’twill be in the valley of love and delight.

When true simplicity gained

to bow and to bend we shan’t be ashamed

to turn, turn will be our delight

’til be turning, turning we come round right.

Simple Gifts, traditional Shaker hymn

Shakers didn’t just sing: they danced. Turning, turning to the music until everyone comes round right. It’s one of the things we can take from this line.

Turning, turning to adapt and adjust to all of life’s changes is part of growing up. None of us can anticipate all events and circumstances that shape our life’s path, so we turn with the bends in road. It’s another thing we can take from this line.

Here’s a third…

No one gets lost in a labyrinth because there’s only one path. It meanders, so we turn, turn, turn as we continue to walk. The turns take us in all directions, but lead to one place only: the center. The labyrinth is a symbol and walking it an act of the spirit. It reminds us that all of life’s turns lead us to one destination: the heart of God.

So turn, turn without fear. You are on the sacred path, never lost to God, always going home.

Labyrinth

gratitude, Meditation, Thanksgiving

Namaste

Leave a comment

I bow to you.

The divine light in me bows to the divine light in you.

Namaste.

To bow and to bend isn’t to grovel. It isn’t a debasing action – even when the one receiving the bowing might mistake it for one. It is to honor the other as equal to one’s own self – and to accept the worthiness of self in so doing.

Once we take the ego element out of it, when we let go of thinking our worthiness can only be gained to the loss of another’s worthiness, bowing and bending aren’t so hard to do.

Note well: don’t ask others to bow and bend before you unless you are willing to bow and bend in return...

Meditation, Thanksgiving

Simplicity

Leave a comment

When true simplicity is gained,

to bow and to bend we shan’t be ashamed.

To turn, turn will be our delight,

’til turning, turning we come round right.

Simple Gifts, Shaker Hymn, chorus

Jesus lines up with the other spiritual leaders when it comes down to what it is really all about – this life we have been granted in this time and place: Love God, love yourself, love your neighbor.

Right here, right now, return to these three things in all you do and say, in all that you are.

Mean good things for yourself and others. Work to bring those good things to life.

Accept the love God offers and return it.

Clarity of purpose and a life of true simplicity come from this. A holy life, no matter what comes your way.

Meditation, observations, Thanksgiving

Why Are We Here?

Leave a comment

‘Tis the gift to be simple, ’tis the gift to be free,

’tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,

and when we find ourselves in the place just right,

’twill be in the valley of love and delight.

Simple Gifts, Traditional Shaker Hymn

Why did God give us life?

The answer is simple: because God delights in us. Because each and every one of us is unique, never seen before and never coming again. The whole nature of the universe is changed because each of us, beloved and unique, came into life. That truth is a cause for celebration. It’s delightful in the most profound sense.

That doesn’t mean that we always live into that delight, or even recognize how much we are loved and prized. I suspect that we’d do a lot less damage to ourselves and others if we truly embraced God’s love and delight for us. But when we do, when we experience God’s delight in us, we find ourselves in a holy place. And when we recognize others and God’s delightful children, we find we are residents in that valley of love and delight.

Meditation, Thanksgiving

Not Perfect, Just Right

Leave a comment

‘Tis the gift to be simple, ’tis the gift to be free,

’tis the gift come down where we ought to be

and when we find ourselves in the place just right,

’twill be in the valley of love and delight

Simple Gifts, Traditional Shaker Hymn

It’s been a grumpy start to the day. The cat started complaining outside my bedroom door just before six, looking for breakfast (Normally, I’m up before the yowling starts, but I stayed up late reading and hoped to sleep past the usual time). My husband said he’d feed the cats, but didn’t get up fast enough to do so before the noise had me fully awake, with sleep no longer an option.

Once up and in the kitchen, I found no clean cat bowls – no one ran the dishwasher last night. The cat continued complaining through the extra few minutes it took to get the cat bowls clean. Food down, yowling ceased. I stomped back into the bedroom, grabbed my computer and glasses, then shut the door behind me loud enough for my husband to hear it. I grumped my way through emails while my husband got up and ready for work. Short on sleep and patience, I was none too gracious when he left.

Was there anything so different when I got up this morning than most other mornings? Only that I got up on the wrong side of the bed instead of the right one. I woke up in a house I love, where I’ve lived and loved fully and well. It’s never been perfect, it isn’t perfect now, and it won’t be perfect in the years to come. But it’s been just right for living an interesting life, for fostering the life of those I love through whatever the years brought. A complaining cat and a too slow spousal response was all it took for me discount this place that has been not perfect, but just right.

It’s only 8:15am, and I have options: I can continue to grump my way through the day, finding all the things that are imperfect or undone here and now or I can settle into the rightness of this life, this moment. I can keep throwing my little tantrum or laugh about it and let it go…

[Honestly, who can listen to Simple Gifts and still complain?]