Every Picture Tells a Story, Don't It? (May 9, 2026)

Photo: Rod Stewart’s classic: “Every Picture Tells a Story, Don’t It?”

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Good morning friends. It is a beautiful day in western North Carolina, cold in the mornings and warming throughout the day.

This has been a good week. I began with preaching at Lewisville (NC) United Methodist Church and celebrating confirmations of thirteen youth with them. Pam and I were summer interns there in divinity school, supervised by an amazing pastor, Jim Faggart, may he rest in peace. It was a turning point for me toward a life of parish ministry, and it was a gift for me to be able to say “thank you” and to see a number of friends from that time.

I then drove toward Charlotte to catch a flight to Detroit, and on the way stopped in Mocksville to say Pam’s mom, who is in a care facility with dementia. She no longer knows us, and so I listen and have some conversation with those who work there. I am in awe of those who work with people at the end of life and I try to express my gratitude at every opportunity.

I then drove the rest of the way to Charlotte, and flew to Detroit for the meeting of the United Methodist-United States Conference of Catholic Bishops dialogue. Our focus is on baptism and migration, and we have one year remaining; our work is expected to be shared in the spring. Since we are not working on institutional unity (or merger), we can focus on shared mission, through acts of prayer, mercy, solidarity and justice.

On Tuesday evening I flew back to WNC and drove to Starrette Farm, for our annual retreat with those who will be ordained next month at our annual conference. It is a superb group of eight men and women, diverse in experience and seminary formation, serving urban and rural settings. The focus was on their conversion and call stories and we concluded the day with a service of foot washing and holy communion. And Starrette is a beautiful space for a personal or smalll group retreat.

Tonight I will participate in the Baccalaureate Service in Duke Chapel for the Divinity School, and it will be my honor to give Doctoral Hood to Rev. Silvia Wang. It was a privilege to read her thesis along with Dr. Jung Choi. I enjoy this service–while I teach in a very part-time way, I will have taught every doctor of ministry student and every United Methodist student. Going forward I will lecture in more limited ways and preach in the fall convocation, but am creating space for a couple of other projects.

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There is life beyond work. I loved listening to Darrell Scott in Studio B (WNCW), and commend his “I’ll Meet You in a Song”. I listened to the Retirement Wisdom podcast episode on “Flourishing” with Daniel Coyle. I subscribe to a number of magazines (New Yorker, Atlantic), but two of the niche ones are Fly Fisherman and Bluegrass Unlimited. And so I read articles on the preservation of an excellent fly fishing school in upstate New York as the founders had retired, how to see trout in a stream and the 60th anniversary of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, whose classic album “Will The Circle Be Unbroken” came out in 1972. I mentioned the Pablo Torres podcast last week, on Epstein and Harvard. This week Torres was awarded a Pulitzer Prize. Well deserved.

The Roberts Court Callais decision led predictably to the gerrymandering of the city of Memphis, Tennessee. One only has to look at the map to see the absurdity and, I will say it, racism in it. This comes from a deep love for that city, and my family who live there and contribute so much to it, along with others. When I looked at the new map I thought of the Rod Stewart song of my teenage years: “Every Picture Tells a Story, Don’t It?”.

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I am engaged in two activities over the next few days. First I am preparing for our Wesley Pilgrimage to England, which includes those ordained over the past two years in Western North Carolina and Virginia. Bishop Sue Haupert-Johnson will also be leading. In particular I am trying to learn more about William Wilberforce and his anti-slavery work, Wesley’s Oxford years and the Aldersgate experience and how that has been understood.

Photo: The “Anti-Slavery” Baptismal Font at City Road Chapel in London.

I am also writing the Sanctuary for Lent 2027 (Abingdon), a daily study from Ash Wednesday through Easter with 47 chapters. I have two chapters remaining to write! This is small and inexpensive devotional guide–it can be purchased in bundles of ten for approximately $14 per 10 small books. I have a goal of working with 100 small groups, churches and districts next Lent, and the author’s royalties will go to the Western North Carolina-Ukraine Covenant, in hopes that this is adopted next month at Lake Junaluska. More about this later, but I am planting a seed for those of you who plan farther into the distance.

Meanwhile I am grinding the beans, watching baseball and the basketball playoffs, and am into the new season of Brokenwood Mysteries (Acorn). Tomorrow we will celebrate Mother’s Day with Pam over lunch at the Terrace Hotel at Lake Junaluska. I wish you all a Happy Mother’s Day, and I always note those who have given birth to children and the extraordinary women who mentor, support and in some instances save children, youth and young adults who are not their biological children. You are all a blessing.

Thanks for reading, subscribing, sharing, and recommending. It really helps. Mostly thanks for your friendship and connection.