Melanie Rigney's Blog, page 6

Where Good and God Reside

Note: On Saturdays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.

Many of you probably did the same things I did during the summer between sixth and seventh grade: took part in the library’s summer reading program; went swimming; did some neighborhood babysitting.

However, I doubt you spent a chunk of every day worrying about what would happen at your new school. Axtell Park, the junior high I was entering, was said to be the wo...

Sacrificial, Transformational Love

Note: On Saturdays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.

A junior high friend who’s an associate Methodist pastor and college ethics teacher recently inspired quite an online discussion about what made Jesus so angry that he cleared the temple. (The posters recognized, of course, the metaphor of Jesus’ body and the temple, but that wasn’t the end of the discussion.) I still don’t have the answer, and likely none of us d...

Prodigal Son: After the Reunion

Note: On Saturdays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.

It can be a deep and profound reflection, assuming the role of each person in the parable of the lost son: the profligate young man who made merry by taking his inheritance early, then saw no choice but to return home; the loving father, who ran out to meet him and ordered the feast; the judgmental, jealous older brother who refused to come to the feast and who th...

On the Nightstand: Redeemed (Again)

In addition to being sisters in Christ, Pam Spano and I are sister fan girls of Heather King, who has described herself as an ex-attorney, recovering alcoholic Catholic convert (and who I think is among the best memoirists writing today). So when Pam messaged me the top cover of Redeemed: Stumbling Toward God, Sanity, and the Peace That Passes All Understanding, my response was something along the lines of “Yippee! I know what I’m reading for March” and promptly ordered it.

Except… a couple days...

Friends in Faith: Rest in Peace, Shannon Wine

About two weeks ago, I got a message from a good friend from a Christian writers’ conference. She’d seen on social media that a mutual friend, Shannon Wine, had suffered a brainstem hemorrhage and the prognosis was very poor. The following day, Shannon was declared brain dead.

Shannon wasn’t a small woman, but she moved like someone gliding on air. While we all met at a writers’ conference, I honestly don’t remember ever reading any of her writing. I do remember her throaty laugh and her “LOVE Y...

Agreement with the Lord

Note: On Saturdays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.

Today you have obtained the Lord’s agreement: to be your God; and for you to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, his commandments, and his ordinances, and to obey him. (Deuteronomy 26:17, NRSVCE)

“You have obtained the Lord’s agreement.” It sounds so simple, so transactional. You do what God wants, and you get the promise of eternal life.

But call it the refin...

“Those Who Are Healthy”

Note: On Saturdays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.

I was watching the video for the next Bible study session, and frankly, I was bored. The speaker kept talking about the evil one knowing the best place to attack, how we’re afraid to suffer the way Christ did, all in, blah-blah-blah-blah-blah. It was me in a different place and time, sure, but not today. And I wondered how often she was going to relive the experie...

“Where Are You?”

Note: On Saturdays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.

But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” He said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” (Genesis 3:9-10, NRSVCE)

God knew where Adam was, of course. God knows everything. God also knew about the last thing Adam wanted to do was converse with God, but there it was.

There is no...

Finding Rest

Note: On Saturdays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.

The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught.  He said to them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried...

On the Nightstand: Paul: A Biography

Oh, St. Paul. I’ve never been as conflicted as some about his views of women (different time, different, place, different audience). Rather, his conversion on the road to Damascus speaks to my soul… and equally, all that he did and endured after that conversion. My Bible study group is studying Ephesians this session, and I’m finding virtually every verse feeds and challenges me. That’s why I’ve decided my reading this month will be a biography of the man.In the “sell” copy for Paul: A Biograp...