David Brisbin's Blog, page 28

Kingdom of Grace

Provoking line from a film: I don’t know what it is about going to high school with someone that makes you feel you’re automatically friends for life. Who says? Who says friendship lasts forever?

Older I get, one of the hardest aspects of life I’ve had to accept is the impermanence of friendships.

Younger, I did automatically think that my cloud of friends would just keep growing and somehow never disperse. But years have taught that friendships move in and out of focus, constantly shifting,...

Slideshow

A longtime friend and part of our community died last week, and spending last moments with him and his family has me thinking again about grief and loss and how we comfort each other and learn to heal.

And asked to be part of his memorial service, talking to his daughter about how, what, and when brought another memorial to mind–for the mother of two daughters and their families and about a hundred friends. The mother had been ill for some time and finally let go in the face of the cancer.  W...

If You Want Your Dog

A friend called and asked if I would speak to a friend of hers–a cancer patient who was staring down a hard road of chemotherapy and radiation. I didn’t know him or his family, but my friend said she thought he could really use a chance to talk through some spiritual issues with which she knew he was struggling.

I said if he was willing, I sure was, and our first two conversations got all the basics out of the way: I learned about his condition, how rare it was and how difficult to treat. How...

First Person

Took my teenage son out to get bagels and cream cheese today.

Between mouthfuls I asked about the new boy who came over last night with the usual neighborhood friends to hang in the back room. Turns out he’s another teen who came from Germany to stay with our next door neighbors over the summer. I asked if he was an exchange student: didn’t know about the exchange part; he’s just staying for five weeks. Ok, so how’s his English? Pretty good but heavy accent. Predictable. Is he fitting in with...

Aviary

My wife has become quite the bird lady.

With the running fountain and canopy of trees that came with the house we moved into last year and the little cloth bags full of seed and hummingbird juice she buys and places in the trees, our backyard has become a theme park with wings. And the birds come. It seems every species in our area has shown up at one time or another.

Watching the birds come and go, eating, flying, perching, bathing, singing, I have my favorites. The finches and hummingbirds,...

Leaving Jesus

So I get on my iCalendar to do some scheduling for Easter week, and there’s no Easter. April Fool’s Day is there, which falls on the same day, but no Easter, no Good Friday. I read later that Apple has intentionally removed Good Friday and Easter from their calendar?

Hard to know for sure as internet information goes these days. But that I wouldn’t have been particularly surprised if it were true spoke volumes about what seems to be more and more sure—that we have entered a post Christian cul...

God’s Shade

Growing up Catholic, I would walk into the confessional and kneel in the dark waiting for the warm rub of wood on wood as the window slid open. My cue. Bless me father for I have sinned…

As a grade schooler, I was mostly manufacturing a lineup of the usual sin suspects in there, but it was still comforting to know I could lay my guilt at someone’s feet, accept my penance, and walk away clean. But thinking back, I realize the only time I really felt clean, sure of God’s forgiveness, was prayin...

Furnace

Just now in the dark, coming out of silent prayer. First light brightening the windows. Wife and boys sleeping. Dogs sleeping. Cat sleeping. Very quiet. Furnace blows on and the warm breath and dark rushing are all at once comforting. Always have been. I remember as a small boy in bed loving the sound and trying hard to fall sleep before it stopped.

I sit at my desk. Stack of bills to pay. All the tasks of the day, things I remember are pressing, haven’t yet found their full weight in the dar...

Chimps and Scientists

Dave Brisbin | 4.29.18
Where to keep our eyes focused as we move through life? Ahead? To the sides? A journal entry explores. A clip from the podcast “A Gradual Pentecost.”

One World at a Time

Dave Brisbin | 4.8.18
What world, what life should be the focus of our spiritual awareness? The ancient Hebrews who wrote our Judeo-Christian scripture have a very clear answer. A short clip from the podcast “I Bless the Rains.”