Can I ask you a personal question? And be totally honest. Do you think of yourself as a successful person? And, more importantly, what criteria do you use to measure success? In other words, how do you spell success? I ask this question because society...
I’ve written in a previous post about what it means to pray the “Psalms of Vengeance.” There I drew upon pastor, theologian, and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who reminds us that when we pray those Psalms calling on God to crush enemies, break the arm of...
Who has been a mentor in your life? Who has invested their time and energy to help you become who you are today? Who has “passed the baton” to you and challenged you…inspired you… to run faithfully the next lap in the race that is...
John records that Jesus talked explicitly about the coming of what he called the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, who would “teach you everything and remind you of all I have said to you.” Interesting, then, how the Holy Spirit showed up, how the disciples responded,...
Author and philosopher William James once said, “The deepest craving within any human being is the craving to be appreciated.” People ache to be seen, heard and acknowledged, James said. Persistent un-acknowledgement takes a toll on people’s lives, psyches, and even our bodies. James coined...
What do you say we all agree to put a period in the creeds immediately after professing our belief in the Holy Spirit? Wouldn’t that make life easier? Since many of us in mainline Protestant churches don’t know what to say about the third person...
Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish-American industrialist who led the expansion of the American Steel industry in the late 19th century. He became one of the wealthiest and most philanthropic Americans in history. When a journalist asked him the secret of his success Carnegie replied, “I...
It is another sad time in the world. Names like Newtown, Charleston, and Columbine ring in our minds as we hear the name Manchester. Twenty-two people were killed in Manchester, last week and another fifty-nine wounded as a bomb exploded just as young people were...
Our grandson Nathan graduated from high school this past week. I can’t believe it! During the graduation festivities, our son Ryan, our daughter-in-law Holly, and her parents, Rick and Pat Bollinger were remembering the day Nathan was born…it seems like only yesterday! We remembered that...