Recent Blog Posts
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Focus on the Now, not the Next
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When my son was in fifth grade, I joined his class on a field trip to the Biltmore House. It’s a mansion in Asheville with over two hundred rooms. In the months before Christmas, they elaborately decorate the rooms with poinsettias, Christmas trees, ornaments, and garlands. I was assigned a…
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Not this way or that, but something much better
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“I have two possible job offers,” a man sprung on me as we met for spiritual direction. “One has a longer commute. The other requires more travel. Both reduce the time I can pray and spend with my wife.” As his spiritual director, neither sounded appealing to me. After a…
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A Word Only Found in the Desert
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“The word of God came to John in the desert.” (Lk 3:1-6) These are words of great hope, not only for the people of John’s time but also for you and me. Just as the word of God came to John, the word of God can come to Scott. The…
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Advent: A Time to See the Incredible in the Ordinary
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Advent is a time to lose our skepticism and see ‘incredible things’ every day.
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How to change regular waiting into holy waiting
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I volunteer as a case manager at a Strong Life Rescue Mission one day a week. The non-profit assists the homeless with their basic needs. One of my assignments is to help them acquire proper identification and a social security card. These are often the first steps to help a person…
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How to prevent spiritual erosion during the holidays
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I’m spending the week on the coast of North Carolina with my family for Thanksgiving. I love being with friends and family, but it takes its toll on my spiritual life. It’s hard to maintain my normal rhythm of prayer and meditation. I hear many who meet with me for spiritual…
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How to steal the heart of Jesus
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I saw an interesting tree on my hike around Lake Norman State Park. A portion of the tree was growing horizontally, about eye level, probably bent over as a sapling by a fallen tree, now long gone. It provided a perfect woodsy billboard for someone to carve, “He stole my…
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An unusual scripture to find hope
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What’s the point of apocalyptic writings? To give hope. It is specially written to provide hope to people undergoing some trial. Apocalyptic language is written for the dispossessed, the oppressed, the persecuted, the suffering, the people crying out for relief. There are two hopes – one future hope and one present…
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Extending God’s Care to the One in Charge
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Last week at the Lanteri Center for Ignatian Spirituality I completed training to learn how to be a supervisor of spiritual directors. In spiritual direction, a supervisor is not what you might think, i.e. a ‘boss’ to oversee and critique the spiritual director. The supervisor is more like another spiritual…
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Finding love in the to-do list
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This time of year, blowing leaves seems to be a never-ending task. I live on four wooded acres. I spend more time blowing leaves in the Fall than cutting grass throughout the growing season. “Blow leaves” is one of the items on the to-do list my wife wrote out for me…