by jakeowensby | Dec 2, 2022 | God's love, Matthew 3:1-12
A dear old mentor of mine passed away a few years ago. But the lessons he taught still help me see things—see myself—a little more clearly. Maybe the most important of those lessons came in the form of a story he once told on himself in his usual self-deprecating...
by jakeowensby | Nov 25, 2022 | Matthew 24:36-44, Waiting
My friend John got a call one evening from the dementia unit. His father had been suffering from Alzheimer’s for several years. John’s father had dressed himself, packed his suitcase, and was now waiting in a visitor’s lounge. The staff had tried to coax him back into...
by jakeowensby | Oct 14, 2022 | Luke 18:1-8
When we returned to the room, Meredith was sitting up in bed. Puffy—her lovingly battered stuffed rabbit—was tucked under one arm. She was sipping apple juice from a straw. A Barney video was playing on the TV. And every nurse on duty in the Pediatric Cardiac ICU...
by jakeowensby | Sep 30, 2022 | Luke 17:5-10
Don Armentrout stood tall enough to ride the big rollercoasters at Disney World and Six Flags. His balding head formed a kind of natural tonsure, and he peered through eyewear that resembled twin magnifying glasses. When I was a seminarian at Sewanee, Don delivered...
by jakeowensby | Sep 17, 2022 | Luke 16:1-13
Friendship, says C. S. Lewis, “is born at the moment when one [person] says to another “What! You too?” You love this thing that I love? And so it was for one of my oldest friendships. In our boyhood and teen years, R- and I shared a love of Tolkien’s Lord of...
