June 17, 2026

Wednesday Word . . . Stories

I read an article the other day about the importance of stories. A mother, who happens to be an Episcopal priest, told about a recent trip with her family on a Disney cruise. She pointed out that Disney makes every effort to tie its symbolism to the Disney stories and how they reinforce those stories at every turn. Subtle mouse ears in the design of carpets, ice cream shops designed to look like the kitchen in Ratatouille, pre-cruise phone calls to the children from Disney characters, and the list went on. All of these things helped make the stories of Disney come to life for the cruisers.

And then she reminded her readers that Christianity is also full of stories. Stories of Christ, the Saints, and other people and events fill our imagination and memory. Our churches are full of stained glass windows and tapestries that reflect these stories. They are entrances into stories (a picture can't tell the whole story) and they invite us to go deeper. They invite us to expand on and fill in details about why a particular story is important enough to enshrine in a window.

But somewhere along the line, she thought (and I agree) we have lost our ability to tell the story of our faith. We have lost the ability to tell the stories of the imagination of our faith. Or maybe not our ability, but our willingness. Faith has become such a personal issue that we are hesitant to speak about it with others. And then, because we don't speak about it, we either forget how or become unwilling to tell the stories.

Like any skill, though, the more we practice it the better we become. Conversely, the less we do something the more we are unable to do that thing. It's the difference in free throw percentage between Larry Bird and Shaquille O'Neal. Larry Bird had a free throw percentage of 88.6 percent, while Shaq only shot 52.7 percent. The difference was how often the two men practiced shooting free throws.

So over the next several weeks I'm going to tell the stories of our stained glass windows. Not the stories of who sponsored them or in whose memory they were given, but the stories they depict. My hope is that you will learn (or re-learn) the stories of our windows and that you might be inspired to begin telling your own stories.

Blessings,

June 10, 2026

Wednesday Word . . . Good Habits

Habits can be good or bad. Habits are things we do over and over again on a regular, recurring basis. And whether good or bad, we miss them when we don't do them.

I came down with a cold last week. I muddled through things, feeling like I was in a thick fog for a funeral on Monday, taking all of the quils – DayQuil, NyQuil, ZzzQuil – along with cough medicine, water, Gatorade, and single-handedly going through a gallon of orange juice in three or four days. I was only in the office in the mornings to get things done, going home to sleep the rest of the day.

But last week was also Bar Week and I didn't make it. I almost didn't realize how much I enjoy that particular habit until I couldn't make it. So I moved it to this week and all seems right again.

Monica is on vacation for the next two weeks. She got everything prepped that she needed to do ahead of time (bulletins, weekly e-mails, etc.) so things around here will continue to flow as normal. But our weekly Tuesday meeting didn't happen, nor did I have a bulletin to proof. So I was a bit off yesterday.

And at Eucharist this morning, just about the time I was consecrating the bread and wine, I realized it was Wednesday and I had forgotten to write the Wednesday Word. So for those of you who have a habit of reading the Wednesday Word over breakfast or morning coffee . . . oops, my bad.

These two things got me thinking about good habits. I have a habit of visiting bars that I wanted to get back to. Maybe you have a habit of waking up to the Wednesday Word that sometimes isn't there because I missed writing it and your morning is a little off. We can have habits of daily prayer, weekly worship, a morning or afternoon walk, or of purchasing a hygiene item or two to donate to the Food Pantry.

Whatever our habits are, we miss them when we miss them; and if we miss them too often, we will fill that time with something else. Our lives are full of both good and bad habits. The trick, over time, is to have more good habits than bad.

Blessings,

Todd+

June 3, 2026

Wednesday Word . . . Good, Not Perfect

In the first story of creation (Gen. 1:1 – 2:4a), six times God saw what was created as “good,” and once God sees that everything created was “very good.”

I think about this every so often, especially when something doesn't go as expected or as I had planned (primarily in the case of worship services).

Years later I still think about Easter Vigil fires that wouldn't light or that almost took out a tree, or planned liturgies where each step is counted out only to have participants not pay attention and get the procession out of sync. Altar guilds have misplaced the wine and water causing an acolyte to pour wine on the priest's hands. Lectors have read wrong lessons and mispronounced words. Deacons have read the wrong gospel. Things happen. Mistakes are made.

In looking back at that creation story, even God didn't do perfect. God did good.

We are often our own worst critics, harder on ourselves than others are on us. Can we allow ourselves to come to a place where we recognize that others benefited from our actions rather than focusing on our failings?

As a priest, there are plenty of times for me to fail – forgotten parts of a sermon, spilling wine or dropping bread, forgetting to administer Communion to people in pews, and many more. But I need to ask myself, “Did the people find this worship service meaningful?” And if the answer is yes, then worship was good. Not perfect, but good.

Wherever you are and whatever you do, be willing to allow yourself some grace and forgiveness in the same way you allow grace and forgiveness to others. Because none of us are perfect; but if we strive to be good, things will be okay.

Blessings,