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Gates of Time
This summer I was at the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum – a memorial to the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Murrah Federal building which killed 168 people. It is a beautiful and power memorial. We were only able to view the outside memorial due to the hour of the day but the symbolism of that place was powerful enough to help us feel a small sense of what happened in that sacred space 17 years ago. One of the most moving parts of the memorial for me was the Gates of Time. These monumental twin gates frame…
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Scars
At youth group on Wednesday night, we talked about scars. There are physical scars that we all have, scars that open the door to some pretty amazing stories. Stories about falls in the shower that ended with a face plant on the side of the tub and a gash in the chin. Or a cool trick on a skateboard that turned out to be a not so cool trick. Maybe a story about being so excited about getting asked to prom your junior year by the cute cross country runner that you ran down the hallway, grabbed the door frame…
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Bloody Church
Writing is really quite simple; all you have to do is sit down at your typewriter and open a vein. Red Smith Open a vein . . . quite simple? I think not. Painful . . . most definitely. Messy . . . usually. In the days of early medicine when people would be under the daze of a high fever, doctors would open their veins to bleed out the “bad blood” so that the person might heal. Do successful writers open a vein? Do writers who resonate with people bleed out? In doing so, do writers heal? Does the…