Author Archives: NextSunday Reflections

Psalm 131 How rare it is to exist without desiring more. I thought about this when I was on a recent walk with my 8-year-old son. The evening was perfect—the sun was setting, but still high enough to warm the late hour. I could see the sliver of our white moon floating in the still-bright […]

Mark 5:41-43 In his book Simplicity Parenting, Kim John Payne argues that childhood is currently under siege. Media constantly floods children’s eyes and ears with sensationalism. Advertisers prey on kids’ need to belong and their fear of missing out. Clothing manufacturers encourage children to dress beyond their years, emulating adult celebrities and sexualized styles. The […]

Mark 5:38-40 I once belonged to a church that experts assumed was in the last stages of its life. A small church, it seated perhaps 100, but often held far fewer—around a dozen, maybe twenty. Its aging congregation was out of touch with current church trends. They’d been told to hang a screen, form small […]

Mark 5:35-37 I am a worrier. I worry about my health, my children, my husband, my job, my house, the economy, the environment—well, you get the point. Worrying makes me feel productive, like I have a bit of control in situations that make me feel powerless. When I travel, I cannot control the pilot flying […]

Mark 5:30-34 Growing up, my mother couldn’t move like most moms. An old hip injury rendered her unable to kneel on the floor, run around, or jump. She did what she could, but her persistent limp always reminded me to be careful, to avoid bumping into her lest she fall.  In my twenties, she received […]

Mark 5:24b-29 This woman in Mark’s story lived for years with a hemorrhagic illness. She had spent all her money on doctors who were unable to heal her condition—a condition which rendered her unclean and therefore a pariah. When word travels to her about a man named Jesus who could remedy the most hopeless cases, […]

Mark 5:21-24a One of the great hallmarks of Christianity is the belief that God took human form and came to earth as Jesus, voluntarily experiencing the slings and arrows of human suffering. Importantly, Jesus’ human experience also involved entering into the suffering of others. He wept for them, his spirit was troubled over them, he […]

Psalm 89:14-18 Some professors who become administrators keep returning to the classroom because their love for teaching is always at the heart of all that they do. Some film stars keep returning to the stage because that immediate experience with the audience reminds them why they love being an actor. And wise people of faith […]

Psalm 89:5-13 On days when our tens of thousands of thoughts are full of confusion, grief, or troubling concerns, our first impulse may be to bypass Psalm 89 and head for a lament. In those chaotic moments, we might long for the psalmist’s empathy instead of proclaiming that all is right with the world because […]

Psalm 89:1-4 “Think about the theme of a person’s life,” my dad tells me when we talk about how he prepares to lead a funeral. Like a student identifying the theme of a book, he looks at what a person’s words and actions say about what was most important to them.  A theme in the […]