This essay is a meditation on the miraculous and proposes an alternative understanding of what constitutes the miraculous. I’ve just poured myself a cup of coffee and am sitting on my porch, or ‘stoep’ as we call it in my native South Africa. Golden rays of light seem to slow down as they flow through the mist…
Have you noticed how two people can be present at the same event yet experience it differently? This is because experience is an interpretation of reality. And reality is a flux of events saturated with symbols seeking interpretation. The meaning of our world does not lay dormant waiting to be discovered, nor is meaning subjectively overlayed onto reality –…
What does it mean to experience God? The story of Rebekah provides a fascinating perspective on this experience. We are first introduced to her as she meets a stranger at a well. (Gen24) The stranger eventually asks her who she is, and she answers confidently: “I am the daughter of Bethuel” Gen 24:24 She is,…
Jesus saying, “I will tell of things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world,” represents a retelling of the human drama that will unveil the misinterpretations and uncomfortable hidden truths that formed our world … and us. In this retelling Jesus pauses at every point we tried to avoid, examines every…
Many of you are aware of our involvement with an informal settlement (squatter camp community) in Hermanus. Today, as I help one of my ‘Sparklekids’ organize a Schengen visa, flights, travel insurance, etc., while in the middle of our own busy travel schedule, I am tempted to get frustrated. Then I remember what it has…
I did not anticipate this conversation. The gentleman who picked us up for a meeting we were to speak at that evening jumped right in: “You have no idea what happened to me when you spoke here last.” He was right. …
We have all been at a place where our experience and our beliefs seem disconnected; where language and reality are mismatched. That place is a unique opportunity – how we respond to it will make us either more honest or more fake. This disconnect can take on different forms. The philosopher Jean-Luc Marion spoke of…