Category Archives: Uncategorized

February 24, 2026 · 2:45 pm

Wilderness & Lent

The traditional lectionary text for this past Sunday, the First Sunday of Lent, recounts Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. This comes on the heels of Jesus’ baptism and is shared in Matthew 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-23, and Luke 4:1-13.

When I think of wilderness my mind goes to western United States topography. I think of the wilderness of Arizona – specifically around Superstion Mountain (see photo below), or the wilderness of the Badlands in South and North Dakota. These are arid places inhabited by sage brush, cacti, rattle snakes, heat or frigidity (depending on the season). The topography is rugged and unforgiving. These places are filled with life, but its a kind of organic existence that has learned to negotiate the hard scrabble climate and terrain.

Imagine spending 40 days, alone, fasting in these kinds of places. It would be nearly impossible. One would not only face the physical elements of the region, but also the physiological realities of food deprivation, both of which could easily contribute to sleep deprivation. So, why go there?

In truth, wilderness is not always a place you choose to enter, as much as it’s a place you find yourself. Matthew and Luke both say that Jesus was “led” by the Spirit into the wilderness. Mark says “the Spirit drove him out into the wilderness”. There seems to be acknowledgment that Jesus needed this experience. Into wilderness existence can come wilderness discovery. Which is, of course, is the essence of Jesus’ temptation experience. He comes face to face with the mental and spiritual challenges presented by the Evil One.

Wilderness demonstrates how closely these three are interrelated – physical, mental and spiritual. Jesus confronts and combats wilderness, with all of its mental, physical and spiritual challenges through prayer. His fasting is a compliment to prayer, which is also sustained by Scripture meditation, used to thwart Satan’s tempting.

Periods of self-reflection and testing may be bouyed by such practices (prayer, fasting, meditation). In deploying these things we combat the aloness of the wilderness periods of life. God, Spirit, Christ are “with us” in Word and prayer, in fasting and meditation. Strength and awareness come from our engagement with these resources, leading us ever and again to the creation of all that is good.

Emerging from such times we do well to also follow Jesus’ example of rest and recovery. He was tended to by the angels, the Biblical accounts tell us. Perhaps we can seek the “better angels of human nature” found in care givers, loved ones and friends to tend to our needs as we rest and recover. Here too the ministry of the spiritual, companions that of the physical, and we emerge the stronger for the struggle.

The season of Lent is oft described as “wilderness time” meant to offer the Christ follower a penintent path to Easter. May this path lead to a re-consideration of the connectedness of all that the wilderness constitutes, including that link between physical, mental and spiritual.

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February 18, 2026 · 10:52 am

Letting the Dust Settle

I did not grow up knowing Ash Wednesday. In fact I was probably in my late 30’s when I first attended an Ash Wednesday service. Since that initial experience I have since been to, even led, others. There is one being offered this evening at our church.

While I do not feel a need to be marked with a cross of ash residue on forehead or back of hand, I do respect the acknowledgement of mortality it represents. “From dust you came, to dust you will return”.

We are living in a time when there is a bombastic style of leadership attempting to drown out and overwhelm other messaging. Grandiose proclamations of “the greatest ever” this or that are commonplace. Shouting down and over criticism and questions has become the norm in the public sector. Hyperbolic statements of achievement and exagerated claims of significance reflect an egocentric approach that is, frankly, exhausting. Not only is humility absent, but praise is expected from those who serve alongside one whose unsatiatiable need for recogntion is unmatched. The adulation and acclaim sought seems unquenchable.

It is against this backdrop that Ash Wednesday arrives, an alternate message from an alternate perspective, sitting opposite the noise and bluster of today’s headlines. Ash Wednesday offers a needed reminder of humankind’s created status at the hands and mind of a benevolent Creator. It is about perspective, order, deferance, position – a need to acknowledge and assume a posture of humility. We, flawed and broken beings need the work of a Savior to rescue and redeem us. We are but dust, and to dust we shall return.

In Genesis 2 the account of creation shared states, “then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life”. (Gen. 2:7) I have always favored this telling of creation because of both the “hands on” nature of God it depicts, as well as the reminder it offers of where we come from. Without God’s creativity and breath, we are but dust.

Most people do not like to think about their mortality, which may be why Ash Wednesday services are so lightly attended. It’s not a popular message. Yet, it’s an important one. Ever since the Fall of humanity, the human being has operated as if we are the center of things, and not God. But Ash Wednesday reminds us that in the end, we are but dust, just as we began. This is not a message of fatalism, but realism. It’s a message of order, humility, deferance, and perspective.

Let us not be fooled, the loudest, brashest and most bombastic messages will not carry the day. Let the dust settle on that.

Images are from Great Sand Dunes National Park – Colorado. A dusty place!

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December 3, 2025 · 9:38 am

Advent is “New” Each Year

“Advent reenacts a past event as if it was new each year.” – Diana Butler Bass, A Beautiful Year

There is a familiarness to this Advent time of year. We use familiar decorations, assume familiar routines and find ourselves among familiar people. We attend the usual services, programs and parties. We observe the well known traditions of our upbringing or adulthood. We revisit things from past years by memory or physical reunion.

“This is the day of the Christmas program.” “The yuletide dinner happens on the 12th.” “There’s a gift exchange with staff on the 21st.” It’s a time to reflect, to retell the story, and to make pilgrimage.

But, for all that is familiar, there is room for something new. Afterall, you are not exactly who or where you were last year, or any year prior. There are new factors in your life – new situations and circumstances too. Maybe you are in a new relationship, with a new friend or new grandchild. Maybe you are newly retired, newly unemployed or employed, have newly moved, or find yourself newly energized or challenged.

Life is never static. It’s organic, always changing and growing and evolving. The very composition of your body continues to change as old cells die off and new ones emerge and grow. Your mind is renewed by your thoughts and dreams, by what you read and what you hear and reflect on. Your spirit is refreshed by your devotion, prayer and worship life.

The annual invitation to the Advent season of preparation and waiting is to lean into the new, even as you revisit the familiar. Retell and listen again to the stories of Advent as you encounter the Scriptual themes. But do so in light of what’s new or fresh in you. Listen with a new focus. Allow your new situation to be the lens through which you encounter the familiar once again.

Anticipate Jesus’ coming again. Yet ask, “what’s new in this anticipation” for me? What is it that you are to pay attention? What does this Advent have for you to learn – about yourself, your faith, your relationships, your God? Might you be being asked to pay attention in a new way during this season that feels so familiar but can be so new?

© Daniel M. Cash 2025

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October 20, 2025 · 11:18 am

There is Only One King

This past Saturday (October 18, 2025), according to some news sources over 7 million Americans joined together at over 2,700 protests held across the United States on what was called “No Kings Day II” (*No Kings Day I was held June 14, 2025). These individuals met in common bond around the concern that the current Presidential Administration is working to subvert democracy and moving at a fast clip in an autocratic direction more common to a dictator or king than what the United States Constitution proscribes for the Executive Branch of our government.

While I was not able to join the local protest due to another obligation, I had loved ones and friends who did participate. Consistent with what has been reported elsewhere, they said the local protest was peaceful, non-disruptive, and made up of people from varied age groups, ethnicities and political allegiance. In other words, it was a gathering held in the spirit of other American protests over the years, acting on the rights of free speech and independent thinking. It was not, as some critics claimed, an anti-American or non-patriotic act of disobedience – there being a distinct difference between disagreement and disobedience.  

It seems to me that if over 7 million Americans were willing to give up some of their Saturday to attend and participate in such a protest, there is a significant amount of dissatisfaction being registered concerning the actions of our current Executive and his administration. In short, many people (maybe most people?) are not happy with the autocratic acts of a president who continues to circumvent congressional oversight, and overreach on judicial precedents. Many people are worried about the direction the country is heading and the unwillingness of the other branches of government to act as a check and balance on an out-of-control president.

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October 8, 2025 · 12:59 pm

Book Update: Dakota Dreams and Hoosier Homeland

Dear Reader: If you have purchased a copy of my book “Dakota Dreams and Hoosier Homeland” I say “thank you!”. The book, released on September 19th, has produced a fair number of sales in these early days, and I am grateful. If you have yet to purchase a copy, I invite you to do so. You will find it an easy read of just 115 pages in the historical fiction genre, exploring the period of homesteading in the American west. Both paper back and e-reader versions are available here through Amazon.

In this world of writing and self-publishing, I am not very good at the marketing and self-promotion part. Like most writers I prefer to let the work speak for itself. Nonetheless, I know that one must encounter something multiple times in our over-messaged world today before determining to act. So, if you’ve thought about checking out the book, here’s a gentle nudge to prompt you.

For those who have, or will, read Dakota Dreams and Hoosier Homeland, I would invite you to offer a review on Goodreads. You can do that through this link.

Frequently Asked Questions: Here are my responses to some of the most frequently asked questions I have received about the book, for those inclined to read a little further.

Why did you decide to write a book like this, in the historical fiction genre?
The idea for this book lived in my head for a couple of years before I ever began writing it. I am a reader of both history and fiction, and sometimes historical fiction. For example, I find Theodore Roosevelt’s time in the Dakotas to be fascinating, and I have read quite a bit about it.
I knew I wanted to explore my Grandfather Clyde Cash’s Dakota homesteading story, but I did not have very many facts to build on. So, I began to research the period of history in which it took place, pulled together the family anecdotes I knew of, and created a story I hope in some way reflects the challenge of that period.

Is this a book about you, your experiences in the Dakotas?
While the book is about my grandparents, Clyde and Anna Cash, there is no doubt it became a way for me to reflect on my own somewhat recent experience in the Dakotas. While it has now been close to three years since I lived and worked there, I needed a way to process the experience and was finally ready to do so. Clyde and Anna’s story became a means of doing just that.
So, if you were curious about “what happened” or “why did Dan come back to Indiana”, this is your chance to read between the lines a little and draw your own conclusion. For my part, the book is now closed on that brief chapter of my life, including it’s disappointments and discoveries.

Do you have any other books in the works?
Someone who loves to write always has another idea or two incubating, and this would be true of me. I’m not ready to promise anything by name just yet, but I am continuing to work on a ministry leadership book I’ve been developing over recent years. I also have another historical fiction idea I’m anxious to explore and see if it my grow into a book.
The writer side of me does it for the enjoyment, certainly not the financial rewards! I always appreciate hearing from readers who like my work, or feel some connection to it.

Have you written anything else?
Yes, I have co-authored two earlier books, 8 Questions Jesus Asked, and The Changing Church, both Judson Press publications. You can learn more about those books on the “Books by Daniel Cash” section of this site. I also somewhat regularly blog post here at danielcash.org and write, and occasionally share a podcast through my Substack page.

If you have not yet subscribed to this page, I invite you to consider doing so. Thank you!

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