I once chanced to see a rather striking sign outside a church.  The text of the sign was simply, “Can you hear the voice of God in the silences of the day?”  Can you hear the voice of God in the silences of the day? I was particularly struck by it because often enough we expect to hear God in another way. We think God speaks to us in an exceptional way, or that he only speaks to exceptional people, and, sadly, we don’t include ourselves amongst them.  So often we will hear people say, “God never speaks to me,” or the question behind this conclusion which is “Why does…

It is not unusual for us to hear from children the questions, “Who made God?”  “If God has made everything, who made God?” “When did God begin?”  Of course, God has neither beginning nor end. God is.  Yet, to imagine something that has no beginning, that has always been, is not possible to comprehend.  I think it is slightly easier for us to imagine something that may have no end, for we have a glimpse of eternity in our own experience of time, but to imagine something without a start is difficult indeed.  We can apprehend such a mystery, but we cannot understand it cognitively.  To contemplate such a mystery requires the recognition of the…

An article was published around this time last year by Robert Waldinger and Mark Schulz, “What the Longest Study on Human Happiness Found is the Key to a Good Life.”[1]  As the authors pointed out, since 1938, the Harvard Study of Adult Development has been investigating what makes people flourish. It started with 724 participants and has now had more than 1300 descendants of the original group.  The authors claim that it’s the longest in-depth longitudinal study on human life, ever done.  And what is the key to health and happiness?  What we know already deep in our hearts: good relationships.   The trick is, however, that those relationships must be nurtured. As they go…

Even though at times it can be difficult to think of the right thing, gift giving is one of the beautiful customs of Christmas. It marks our appreciation and gratitude for the people in our lives. It does not need to be grand or expensive; it can be small and simple. At times it’s the outcome of a great deal of thought and consideration.  I am sure all of us, at some time, have given a gift and held our breath while we waited for the other person’s response.  Or we may have received a gift and not just been touched by it, but left without words because we know what it…

There is a magic in every beginning, wrote the German philosopher Herman Hesse.[1]  How true this is when we experience the birth of our children, when we hold a newborn baby in our arms, when we delight in the pure wonder and sense of play evidenced in young children.  When we gaze upon a child we are caught intensely between an immediate experience of the present and a heightened expectation of the future.  And I think it is true that in every child, God waits for us to stir again within us the sense of new beginnings, of fresh possibilities, of awakening hopes.   The invitation that God sets before us is to become…