Category: Tom

A Chilly Breeze

There’s a chill in the air again here in Boston. Over the summer, I spent most of my time inside the semi-cool Green Line cars and indoors in office buildings, escaping the hot-humid air. But upon the start of the school year, there is that, all too familiar now, chilling breeze, signaling the entrance of […]

What Do I Receive?

I write this post today after a week of pause to recollect and remind myself of the things that I am thankful for having in my life. I am issuing this practice as a meditative guide and prayer list after recalling the following quote by Dietrich Bonhoeffer: “In normal life we hardly realize how much […]

Pause and Presence

This morning, I meditated. I’ve done many different types of meditation throughout my life, but this time felt different. Perhaps, it was the fact that I was alone and decided to meditate myself instead of in a group setting. During my meditation I prayed and reflected on the week ahead, and the week behind me. […]

Remembering Faith In Rachmaninoff

I just returned from a BU Orchestra concert. To be quite honest, my expectations were not incredibly high given the fact that we’ve only been in school for about a month. Yet, I was surprised as to how well the orchestra actually played. The musicians created a full, rich sound while sharing moments of deep musicality, visibly moving many […]

Listening for the Unexpected

As the son of a United Methodist pastor, the grandson of a United Methodist theologian, the grand-nephew of a widely-known United Methodist preacher, the grand-nephew of a United Methodist theology teacher, and even the great-grandson of an Irish immigrant Methodist clergy, the term Methodist carries a great deal of meaning in my life. Inundated with […]

God’s Plan

Drake, the hip-hop mogul and rapper of global fame, came out with a single entitled “God’s Plan” a few weeks ago. To be completely honest, I think the song is actually really good. The beat, like much of Drake’s work, is danceable and inventively suave. The lyrics resemble his thoughts on how through adversity he […]

Sermons on Sunday Mornings

The Sunday Morning sermon study is a thing of beauty. For the last two weeks, the conversation has flowed spontaneously with theological insight, moral questioning, and ethical dilemma. Deep questions such as, “Is it sinful to think a sinful action, or is it only sinful to carry out that action?” and “What is freedom?” are […]

Trust and Growth

This week, I sat down to write my first Lent Devotion. The theme I had chosen was “Growth,” a concept that I’ve thought a lot about since I first started here at BU. In fact, one of the first things I asked myself in the first week of classes freshman year was, “How will I […]

Piano Lessons

Today I gave a friend a piano lesson. She had talked about wanting to learn for awhile and eventually she asked me to help her out, and I agreed. As I sat explaining the basics of the instrument and musical notation, I felt a stream of memories rush into my conscience. Surprisingly, most of the […]

The Future of the United Methodist Church

What is to become of the United Methodist Church? This is a question I have been grappling with for the last year or so. What is my role in a denomination in turmoil? What is the answer to a complicated divide over homosexuality? How will young adults like myself, raised, educated, and formed in the […]