Marilyn R. Gardner's Blog, page 30

Royal Weddings, Slaying Dragons, and Good Things in a Hard

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“I just don’t think we should pay attention to it!” The man was adamant. “It’s an archaic system and we should not give it attention by even talking about it!”

I was listening to a call in talk show about the royal wedding on public radio. There were experts and commentators on everything from what the style of the dress would be to the protocol that Meghan Markle would need to learn in order to function in her role as Prince Harry’s wife. The man who was speaking was clearly a cynic, but on...

Royal Weddings, Slaying Dragons, and Good Things in a Hard

[image error]

“I just don’t think we should pay attention to it!” The man was adamant. “It’s an archaic system and we should not give it attention by even talking about it!”

I was listening to a call in talk show about the royal wedding on public radio. There were experts and commentators on everything from what the style of the dress would be to the protocol that Meghan Markle would need to learn in order to function in her role as Prince Harry’s wife. The man who was speaking was clearly a cynic, but on...

Royal Weddings, Slaying Dragons, and Good Things in a Hard

[image error]

“I just don’t think we should pay attention to it!” The man was adamant. “It’s an archaic system and we should not give it attention by even talking about it!”

I was listening to a call in talk show about the royal wedding on public radio. There were experts and commentators on everything from what the style of the dress would be to the protocol that Meghan Markle would need to learn in order to function in her role as Prince Harry’s wife. The man who was speaking was clearly a cynic, but on...

Royal Weddings, Slaying Dragons, and Good Things in a Hard

[image error]

“I just don’t think we should pay attention to it!” The man was adamant. “It’s an archaic system and we should not give it attention by even talking about it!”

I was listening to a call in talk show about the royal wedding on public radio. There were experts and commentators on everything from what the style of the dress would be to the protocol that Meghan Markle would need to learn in order to function in her role as Prince Harry’s wife. The man who was speaking was clearly a cynic, but on...

Royal Weddings, Slaying Dragons, and Good Things in a Hard

[image error]

“I just don’t think we should pay attention to it!” The man was adamant. “It’s an archaic system and we should not give it attention by even talking about it!”

I was listening to a call in talk show about the royal wedding on public radio. There were experts and commentators on everything from what the style of the dress would be to the protocol that Meghan Markle would need to learn in order to function in her role as Prince Harry’s wife. The man who was speaking was clearly a cynic, but on...

Royal Weddings, Slaying Dragons, and Good Things in a Hard

[image error]

“I just don’t think we should pay attention to it!” The man was adamant. “It’s an archaic system and we should not give it attention by even talking about it!”

I was listening to a call in talk show about the royal wedding on public radio. There were experts and commentators on everything from what the style of the dress would be to the protocol that Meghan Markle would need to learn in order to function in her role as Prince Harry’s wife. The man who was speaking was clearly a cynic, but on...

God of the Displaced and Exiled

Oh God of the displaced and exiled,

Hear the prayers of those in limbo.

Wipe the tears of mothers who parent children without a home.

Feed those who are hungry; keep safe those who are in danger.

Give strength to the helpers and the healers; to those who work tirelessly for justice.

Give us the spirit of courage and not fear that we might welcome the stranger in our midst.

Root out lazy prejudice that would block us from receiving those in need.

Give us ears to hear the voices that cry out i...

Palestinian Christians and a Prayer for Healed Eyesight

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“The perseverance of small, powerless drops of water dripping on the same rock, in the same place, ends by breaking the rock. In the same way, the power of faith with perseverance can break walls of hatred, of rejection, and of violent injustice.”*

The book sits on our book shelf, old and dusty with pages breaking out of the binding. The inscription on the first page says only this:

God does not kill! 

It is signed by Elias Chacour – the author of this small paperback.

The book is titled Blo...

A Life Overseas – Saint Photini: Missionary, Martyr, and Beloved One

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I’m at a A Life Overseas today! I would love it if you joined me there to talk about a story familiar to many. 

One of the best-known yet least known stories in the Gospel of John is about a woman known simply as the “Samaritan Woman.” The familiar story tells us that Jesus had left Judaea and was returning to Galilee. The trip took him through the region known as Samaria where, tired and thirsty, he sits down by a well. A Samaritan woman comes to the well in the middle of the day to get wa...

If I Had a Few Weeks to Live, I Would Still Choose to Live Between

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If you had a few weeks to live, where would you go?

A few years ago, writer Roger Cohen asked this question in an opinion piece in the New York Times called “In Search of Home.” He talked about the “landscape of childhood” that place of “unfiltered experience, of things felt rather than thought through, of the world in its beauty absorbed before it is understood, of patterns and sounds that lodge themselves in some indelible place in the psyche and call out across the years.”*

There are plac...