These posts aim to focus great ideas on everyday living.
In the scuffle of Jesus’ arrest in Gethsemane, there appears, in one of the disciples’ hands, a sword. Did the disciples carry swords? We wrack our brains. If it was a Passover meal that Jesus and his disciples had just concluded, packing weapons would have been forbidden by Jewish standards. Weapon carrying was neither …
Our true religion is what we do with our solitude. Churches tend to emphasize the activities of discipleship that take place in the fellowship of believers–common worship, mission, looking after one another, and religious education. Once we’re out of the church building and by ourselves, there is often not much from Church that we can …
Mark, the inventor of the gospel genre, had a dire view of the social and political world into which the Apostles would be carrying the message about Jesus. Mark’s 13th Chapter consists of an instructional discourse in which Jesus prepares his followers to brace themselves for a rough ride once Jesus had finished his public …
Victor Frankl, the Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist as well as a Holocaust survivor, is doubtless one of the most inspiring thinkers of the 20th century. The core of his insight into the human situation came in the extreme destress of the Nazi death camps. Surrounded by illness and despair, Frankl began to notice that the …
Is it Time to Explore the Spiritual Riches Outside the Church? This post is going to be like throwing the Lincoln Logs out on the floor and worrying about building something with them later. This topic has been gurgling around in my thoughts for several weeks. I’ve even started a folder into which I’ve stuffed …
This weekend marks the 500th anniversary of the young Augustinian monk, Martin Luther’s nailing 95 Theses on the chapel door of the Wittenberg Church. The theses were not demands or creedal declarations, but an invitation to debate abusive practices of Church officials who were selling certificates believed to reduce the time in punishment in purgatory …
“Wow! That must have been a hawk?” That was the first thing that went through my thoughts as a large bird flapped grandly and landed on the ridge of a roof. It was about 7:30 a.m., I’d just finished my jog, and was absent-mindedly trudging up a quiet street. “He’s bigger than a hawk. …
Aunt June’s Vase My Mom insisted on it–“Aunt June will receive a thank you note.” That thank you to Aunt June needed to be first on long task list of wedding preparations 42 years ago. June wasn’t my aunt. Or, if she was, she was a great aunt once removed or something complicated like that. Unmarried, …
My fascination with providence—this idea of God’s kindly management of events, is similar to the enthusiasm of the Mark Twain character who preached, “There’s gold in them thar hills.” We just haven’t mined the gold. We’ve picked up this opinion about where history is headed from all the chatter—much of it political—that, if we’re sophisticated …
