Today Reia started off to preschool carrying her big, hardcover children’s Bible story book. Hitomi said she couldn’t bring it to preschool. It’s in English, first of all, and besides the school teacher naturally avoids religion and politics. Of course, there are always references to religion that come up because of cultural events (Japanese culture [...]

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The other day we had lunch with a Japanese businessman who does something very fascinating. He meets with other Japanese businessman who despise religion and Christianity, and they read the Bible together. Attendance is by invitation only, and limited in number, which he explains is a good way to politely keep the Christians out (with [...]

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I remember having a conversation once about having a “revelation of Christ” with my friend John. His point was that Jesus reveals himself to us in our real life experience; that is, we can know and follow him in reality. In that case, changing emotions, ideas, doctrines and theories are no substitute for such an [...]

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I’ve been making peace with myself in various ways these past few years. I’ve been letting go of roles and strengths that I thought I should characterize my life (and that I tried by costly efforts and pretense to live out or display). I looked at my life in retrospect and noticed patterns that I [...]

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Ruthless Trust
Brennan Manning. HarperCollins 2002, Paperback, 190 pages, $13.95

I’ve been reading several books lately all at once. One is Ruthless Trust, by Brennan Manning and another is Let Your Life Speak, by Parker Palmer. What’s really been significant is the common message coming from both books (and from other sources as well). I’ve been reading a chapter in [...]

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