Marilyn Chandler McEntyre

Jan 22, 2025 | blog.reformedjournal.com | Marilyn Chandler McEntyre

Along with extensive, sometimes heroic, recovery efforts in the many neighborhoods devastated by the recent firestorms in Los Angeles county, conversations online and among concerned Californians are once again focusing on preparedness.

Nov 4, 2024 | reformedjournal.com | Marilyn Chandler McEntyre

When I asked a group of 15 people in a workshop to make a list of words they could no longer use comfortably in church or at extended family gatherings or with neighbors or the general public, every one of them came up with 10 to 15 words within three minutes. The words they listed, and we talked about, were ones they had found were “triggers”–words that changed the mood of a conversation like ink dropped into water before much more could be said to clarify or nuance an opinion.

Sep 22, 2024 | blog.reformedjournal.com | Marilyn Chandler McEntyre

My brother and I grew up in a small house with four adults–two parents, two grandparents, all of whom had things to say. All of them told stories. Grandpa’s long Faulknerian after-dinner rambles featured a large cast of North Carolina kinfolk, mostly poor, clever, politically divided. My grandmother had her own repertoire of stories from a more genteel, if not more affluent, upbringing in rural Virginia.

Sep 15, 2024 | blog.reformedjournal.com | Marilyn Chandler McEntyre

Today I won’t pretend to understandthe ways we care for one another. Today I will simply standin these thick woods and lovehow the branches of one treereach into the branches of another.      Richard JonesMy husband and I spent some hours this past week making our way through the thickets of the healthcare system.

Sep 8, 2024 | blog.reformedjournal.com | Marilyn Chandler McEntyre

Heretic martyr, chained to the stake, Jan Hus sangand prayed while a hooded executioner held a torchto the dry sticks that pricked his feetand a sober crowd watched, waiting for what? An act of God? A shriek of pain? A promiseto recant? Shadrach’s angel to returnon special assignment? Or only the grim relief taken in another’s’ torment (this time, thank God, someone else’s turn)? The mystery of faith baffles the reasoning mind, the lively maze of sensing nerves, rushing glands and beating brain.