By Bryan Sickbert As once the winged energy of delight carried you over childhood’s dark abysses, now beyond your own life build the great arch of unimagined bridges. Rainer Maria Rilke This first stanza of Rilke’s poem “Once the Winged Energy of Delight,” is my favorite piece of verse. Last week, the first retreat of…

By Bryan Sickbert Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? Isaiah 43: 18-19 In these verses, the prophet reveals God’s intent to bring about a new exodus that will release Israel from exile in Babylon and…