Author Archives: awtraughber

John’s Maundy Thursday

Tonight I had the opportunity to attend a beautiful Tenebrae service at a local church where a dear friend serves on the worship team.  It was a service full of good music, poignant testimonies, and full readings from the Gospel … Continue reading

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Spring Break Photostream

I’ve spent the last few days over in Fresno, California visiting friends.  Pictures to the right in the photostream for receipts, right?  The pictures are from a Monday afternoon hike to Pincushion Mountain Peak, which is just outside Fresno.  The … Continue reading

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Remembrance Part Five

Over the weeks of this Lenten season, I’ve tried to do some reflection on successive chapters of Erik Varden’s The Shattering of Loneliness.  The book begins with the call to “remember that we are dust,” which fits perfectly with Ash … Continue reading

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Remembrance Part Four

In one of two chapters on the theological virtue of faith in Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis encourages his readers to see the battle of faith as being between “faith and reason on one side and emotion and imagination on … Continue reading

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Spring Break Scramble

This last week has gone by in a blur.  That’s to be expected, of course, at the end of a quarter or semester.  The week has been packed with classes and grading and meetings and trying to wrap things up … Continue reading

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Remembrance Part Three

Perhaps the most sobering of Erik Varden’s reflections on remembrance in The Shattering of Loneliness comes in the third chapter.  The chapter is centered on Jesus’s command in Luke 17 to “remember Lot’s wife.”   The command to remember Lot’s … Continue reading

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“The Rare Chance”

Something I appreciate about the thinking of Seth Godin is that he finds a way to blend the possible and the practical.  And he crafts some great one-liners in the process.  A recent post of his, “On Building a Cathedral,” … Continue reading

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Reading in Lent

One of the practices I’m trying to hold to during the Lenten season is the reading of shorter books.  Small thing, I know, but it feels somehow fitting.  The season started as I finished up Zena Hitz’s Philosophers Look at … Continue reading

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Remembrance Part Two.Five

Last week as I was thinking the second thing to remember from Erik Varden (remember you were once a slave in Egypt), a song from long ago came to mind.  A bit of context from an odd source first, though. … Continue reading

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Remembrance Part Two

For me, most Lenten seasons start with the “bang” of Ash Wednesday but quickly fall into a slough of messy hopes and habits.  That’s a cost of being interested in the church calendar as a member of a church that … Continue reading

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