Grace Traces

Hope and prayer seem to share some of the same DNA.  Both can feel elusive at times.  Both are difficult to define.  Both can be serendipitous, washing over us and even overwhelming us at unexpected times.  Emily Dickenson wrote that "Hope is a thing with feathers."  The same can be said of prayer in my experience.  Hope at times frustratingly and inexplicably flutters away, same can be said of prayer.  What do we pray when violence erupts in Colorado or in our own back yard here in Wisconsin?  How can we as human beings seem so advanced in our medical and educational and other understandings, yet human nature remains that anger and hatred comes out in the form of violence?   Maybe some of the frustration with hope...and prayer...is that neither seem to obey our commands or bend to our control.  And we are rather accustom to being able to buy, consume, and control just about everything else in our lives.  But not hope.  But not prayer.  Neither can be picked up on y

In just about one hour my kids will leave for two days of camp at Pilgrim Center .  My first experience camping was not until I was a teenager when I spent a week in the Boundary Waters of MN.  I still remember the first time I portaged and had to carry a canoe on my back, you won't think something that floats could be so heavy!  I remember putting the food up in the tree so we did not attract bears, always a reassuring thought right before you go to bed.  I remember sitting at the campfire until a star-filled sky in the beauty of creation laughing with my fellow campers.  I can only pray that my children sense the same profound closeness to God and to others with them at camp in the coming two days.   One of the reasons why I think camp is so great is it does connect us to God's creation.  It is good to sit under towering trees and swim in a huge lake to make Genesis 1 come to life.  Another reason why I think camp is so great is it teaches...actually immerses us...in