What are the questions that are really on the minds of Christians as they try to live out their faith?
Author Tom Ehrich challenged readers of his weekly newspaper column and his daily e-mail meditations to pose the questions that they would like to ask Jesus "from the roadside," as blind Bartimaeus did in the gospel. He received hundreds of responses-- not one of them about matters of liturgy, church politics, or canon law. Instead, the questions these ordinary Christians longed to ask Jesus were deeper and more basic: Will I see my late husband in heaven? How can I make my marriage more joyful? Will we ever find peace? What do you want of me?
In Just Wondering, Jesus, Ehrich takes 100 of these questions and answers each in the form of a brief meditation/essay, and provides a fascinating glimpse of what is truly on people's minds and in their hearts. The meditations, based on gospel readings, are valuable for personal devotion and small-group study.
Tom Ehrich, an Episcopal priest, is president of the Church Wellness Project, with a nationally distributed weekly newsletter and a weekly column in Presbyterian Outlook. Speaking engagements include seminars at Union Theological Seminary and workshops nationwide. A nationally syndicated columnist for Religion News Service, he is author of several books and a former reporter for The Wall Street Journal. He lives in New York City.
"I have been a fan of Tom Ehrich for several years. I read his daily meditations often. My sense is that he is the best thing going of anything like this. Response to these 100 'street level' yearnings, rather than static and staid conversation stopping answers, are invitations to live the questions that mark each of our journeys. Lively dialogues offer clarity and courage to those of us bogged down along the way in personal mire and discouraged by sagging hope of religious transformation."—Rev. William Dols, Editor, The Bible Workbench
"A must read...Tom Ehrich brings grace to the hard questions of life. Just Wondering, Jesus will refresh every reader: clergy who want to know the real concerns of persons in the pew, and laity who need to know there are answers to their probing questions."—The Rt. Rev. George N. Hunt, Bishop of Rhode Island, retired
"The many who look forward to Tom Ehrich's daily column can settle into a comfortable chair with a good cup of coffee for a whole afternoon with his humane and human voice."—Barbara Crafton, author of Some Things You Just Have to Live With and Let Us Bless the Lord
