After so many dry stretches, the steady rain has felt like a gift. The ground drinks deeply. Trees look fuller. Grass greens up almost overnight. And all of it has made me think of Hildegard of Bingen, the 12th-century mystic who spoke of the Spirit’s viriditas—often translated as “greening power.” Scholars describe viriditas as Hildegard’s image for the living vitality that comes from God: a life-giving energy of growth, healing, fruitfulness, and renewal that runs through creation and, by...

Dear EFUMC family, May is a month of held breath. The alleluias of Easter are still ringing in the church, but all around us life feels full and hurried. The school year leans toward its close. Teachers, students, and families are pressing toward the finish line. There is excitement in the air, but also fatigue. For those who have taught or loved someone through the rhythms of a school year, May carries its own kind of ache: exhaustion, anticipation, and the longing to become human again...

Dear Edinburg FUMC family, I have been thinking a lot about the cross—which is to be expected of a pastor during Holy Week. But as we have been walking with Jesus through the Gospel of Luke this Lenten season, I have been turning over in my head Jesus’ call to his disciples to “take up their cross and follow [Him.]” I have been asking myself: what does it mean to take up the cross? Perhaps some of us have been taught that carrying the cross means enduring suffering for the sake of...