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I have never been an evangelical Christian. I know that just writing those words in a public forum will cause many of my friends consternation. After all, I have been a member of the Church of the Nazarene for more than 60 years. And it is not anything if it is not evangelical. But IContinue reading “I Have Never Been an Evangelical Christian”

For seven of us, Wednesday was game day:  Pittsburgh Pirates vs. the Atlanta Braves. Jonathan had gotten us tickets just eight or nine rows up from Homeplate. What a great view in a great stadium. We could see the field perfectly, but we could also look up and see the Pittsburgh skyline in front ofContinue reading “Home Alone: Belcher-Style, Part II”

“Mom, do you have my wallet?” Seven-year-old Naomi called up the stairway. “Yes, it’s in my bag. Have you eaten breakfast yet?” Jodi answered from the upstairs landing. “Carrie, do you have the sunscreen?” Jonathan yelled from down below. “Yes, it’s in the bag with the diapers, “called Carrie, as she maneuvered two-year-old Henry throughContinue reading “Home Alone: Belcher-Style, Part I”

His parents were tiny folk. His mother was about 4’10,” and I never knew her to have anything but white, fluffy hair that framed her heart-shaped face. She made cookies that made all of us happier on the days we were lucky enough to be there on a baking day. His dad Elva was notContinue reading “Elvadore”

You’ve read it, possibly memorized (or mismemorized it, as I have it), interpreted it or had it interpreted (or misinterpreted for you) more than once in your lifetime. I know some teachers begin to teach it in fourth grade, which seems a tad too early to try to teach a poem—or a life lesson, butContinue reading “Earth, the Right Place for Loving”

We walked down the ramp from the wide-bodied jet and spilled out into the gate area, which was right next to all the shopping corridors of the big airport. In a second it seemed, we spotted my friend Ruth who had just arrived from Kenya. The three of us, Ruth, my son Geoffrey, and IContinue reading “South African Surprises”

Monday was a sunny, warm day in Chicago, and I was on my way to the Art Institute with my fellow book club members to view art in the Modern Wing. Of course, I’ve been there before, but this time would be special: we had just finished a book by Jonathan A. Anderson and WilliamContinue reading “Monet and Modern Art”

Grandma Corrie I never called her that; she was just “Grandma” to me, my mother’s mother. The next generation down called her “Great-Grandma” and loved her dearly just as we of our generation did. But Grandpa Andy, who was living with us, always called her “Corrie” when she came to visit us in Indiana fromContinue reading “Grandma Corrie”

“Risk confessing,” said our professor Dr. Mark Quanstrom last week to the pastoral care and counseling class. Ha! Easy to say, but much harder to do when you’ve been in some Wesleyan holiness tradition church for your whole life and you’re “of an age” like mine. When I was growing up, no one wanted toContinue reading “Confessions”

I’ve been wrestling with resurrection. That’s what I said all through Lent; I said I really wanted to write on the idea of resurrection in a reflective way, but then I just couldn’t do it. Any wrestling that occurred was almost subconscious. Of course, I know the dictionary definition of the concept: rising from theContinue reading “Resurrection”