I was shocked! As a young 30-year-old runner, someone who’d been physically active and healthy all my life, I was stunned in 1999 when I felt like I was having a heart attack. In follow-up with a cardiologist, I learned that I needed a mitral valve replacement. No problem –...
Practice Hope – By Garth Englund. Member Blog, Day 7
The world needs a little more hope. The discernment of my call to Seminary was, at a fundamental level, centered on a desire to help bring God’s hope shown in Jesus Christ to a world in need. Too often, unfortunately, rather than living as examples of hope, the followers of...
Practicing Hope in the Work I Do For Pay – By Erika Taibl. Member blog post, Day 6
I changed jobs this year. For three years, I worked in communications for a Fortune 200 food and agriculture company. I had challenging and good work to do. I had opportunities to learn and grow. I worked with talented people. I was compensated well. I was rising in the company,...
Practicing Hope – by Drew Stever. Member Blog, Day 5
“Trump administration rolls back protections for transgender students.” “Administration announces they will ban transgender people from serving in the military.” “Hate Violence Against Trans People Still ‘Disturbingly Common’” “Candace Towns is the 25th Trans Person Murdered in 2017” (posted on 11/2) It was around this time last year that I...
Practicing Hope – by Dave Schutt. Member Blog, Day 4
As a young man working in a lab in St. Paul, I looked up to the engineers I worked with and thought, “I can do that…I want to do that.” The path to get there was not an easy one but a few night classes, a good enough score on...
Hope That Goes Beyond – by Dan Lambrides. Member blog, Day 3
You and I do it. We all do it: we speak as if hope and wish are synonyms, interchangeable words. The old Hebrew Bible and the New Testament provide a different view. We can sum it up: wish is circumstantial; hope is transcendent. Isaiah writes that though the strong, vibrant...
Practice Hope – by Betsy Diekema. Member Blog, Day 2
“Hope is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all.” Emily Dickinson’s poem about hope has always been a favorite. Our crazy, stressful, uncertain world requires us to search for light and hope. In the darkest of...
Practice Hope – by BethAnn Ahlers. Member blog, Day 1
In January of 2016, I went in for my routine, annual physical. When examining me, the nurse practitioner said, “I feel a small lump. It’s probably just a cyst, but I want you to have some additional tests in addition to your mammogram.” I really wasn’t too worried at this...
The Reformation Continues
With a Voice of Singing In celebration of dear friends and musical influences, Magnum Chorum offers an evocative program of treasured choral works including Jennings’ jubilant With a Voice of Singing, Be Thou a Smooth Way by Johnson, Dickau’s inspired O Nata Lux, Spirit of Life by Aspaas, and the deeply reassuring Hope and Quietly Wait by Rudoi,...
What’s in a Name?
Gloria Dei means The Glory of God in Latin. We recently asked ourselves what’s in a name and how does it help us remember that God’s glory is all around us. We are not the only Gloria Dei Lutheran Church as you can imagine. Conduct a Google search and many...