This afternoon I hiked through the Forest Glen Woods with Steve, Erika, and Hank. We paused briefly at one view of the river and saw this: It's impossible to see from the poor quality (iPhone) photo, but within our range of sight was, as best we could identify, a mule white-tailed deer, a pair of… Continue reading I spy
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DIY Hanging Quilt Frame
I wanted a simple frame to display a small quilt I made. Even though I have little-to-no carpentry skills, it seemed like something I could make myself instead of spending $90+ on a custom frame on Etsy. It worked! I had most of the supplies on hand and only spent about $12, and buying everything… Continue reading DIY Hanging Quilt Frame
“Now What?”
I delivered this sermon on Acts 1:12-26 to LaSalle Street Church on 4/18/21. The manuscript is edited below for reading, the full service is here, and the sermon is embedded below. Last week, Pastor Laura introduced our new series tracing the movement of the Holy Spirit through the book of Acts—how the Holy Spirit moved… Continue reading “Now What?”
Hank, year one
One year ago today, I adopted a 13-pound dog and renamed him Hank, short for Henri Nouwen. About as soon as it became clear that the pandemic would make working from home a long-term reality, I began browsing the websites of local animal shelters for a dog. At that time it was difficult to adopt.… Continue reading Hank, year one
This and that
There was a clip circulating online yesterday that was hard to watch, a short exchange between Billy Eichner and Colton Underwood, the former Bachelor contestant who came out as gay. It’s a cameo Billy made during Colton's season, a season that had portrayed Colton with a kind of naivety it connected explicitly to his Christian… Continue reading This and that
First dose
Yesterday I received my first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. It was one of the first warm days we've had in Chicago after a brutally long winter. I walked to the neighborhood clinic where I'd found an appointment, and the most direct route took me through a park I've been visiting daily this last… Continue reading First dose
Holy Saturday & Easter Sunday ’21
My church has been meeting remotely (via YouTube, along with other real-time gatherings throughout the week) the entire duration of the pandemic in the U.S. The first few months of "Couch Church," most Sundays I'd set up my laptop, make a big breakfast, settle into the sofa with anticipation, and then...immediately feel a kind of… Continue reading Holy Saturday & Easter Sunday ’21
Good Friday ’21
Is it just me, or has this Holy Week felt especially long? Maybe it's how badly we need good news, maybe it's the monotony of pandemic life, maybe it's the bizarre way so many of us seem to be experiencing time right now; but the gap between Maundy Thursday and Easter Vigil has felt like… Continue reading Good Friday ’21
Maundy Thursday ’21
It's my favorite service of the year, insofar as "favorite" isn't synonymous with "most pleasurable." Maundy Thursday allows us to encounter Christ in specific emotions that rarely get room to breathe in the life of the church the rest of the year: the awkward and embarrassing intimacy of having your bare feet touched by a… Continue reading Maundy Thursday ’21
The labyrinth at St. James Cathedral
On Saturday I walked the labyrinth at St. James Cathedral in downtown Chicago. If I remember correctly, it was a campus minister who introduced me to labyrinths—in that case, a simple path made of rope and traffic cones on a weekend retreat—and since then they’ve occupied a place in my spirit somewhere in between a… Continue reading The labyrinth at St. James Cathedral
Brent Bailey 