To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. When Southern states began agitating in 1861 to leave the Union and form the Confederate States of America, not everyone was enthusiastic. Every county in the state of Tennessee, for example, was required to vote separately on this crucial issue. In Scott County, located in the northeastern part of the state,… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. Have you ever wondered what’s happening inside those gray canisters hanging near the tops of utility poles? Those are transformers – not to be confused with Autobots and Decepticons, the shape-shifting robots who used to be mere toys but now wage war in exceedingly loud movies. A transformer is a specialized device that converts… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. In the United States, the closest thing to hallowed ground is Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers and dignitaries are buried on its 624 acres. Prior to the Civil War, the property was the estate of Robert E. Lee and his wife Mary, who was a great-granddaughter of Martha Washington…. Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. Growing up in Indianapolis, I have always been fascinated with the “500.” This Sunday I’ll be attending my 38th race – a decent slice of the 107 competitions held every Memorial Day weekend at the Speedway. As a family we have sat in all four turns over the years, not to mention at various… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. The Windsor Guildhall, which serves as the town hall for the community of Windsor in the county of Berkshire, England, has two claims to fame. In recent years it’s become a fashionable place for celebrity weddings. On April 9, 2005, Prince Charles and his longtime mistress Camilla Parker Bowles (now the king and queen… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. Some years ago, a woman named Patricia Miller, who worked in a hospital emergency room, recounted an experience that changed her life. Things at first didn’t seem to be heading in that direction. She admits that she had “learned to stop crying at the pain around me. Each day it seemed I was becoming… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. Long-time residents of Chicago can still remember when their mayor moved into hell. Actually, Jane Byrne and her husband moved into the area on the Near North Side that had long been known as Little Hell. That name went back to the 1850s, when Irish immigrants lived in dismal conditions near a gas refinery… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. Over the course of a ministry that spanned more than four decades, Tim Keller taught people how to live. After he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in June 2020, Keller began to focus on teaching people how to die – a mission that he completed last Friday morning when he left this world… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. It’s Dandelion Explosion Season. About the time that daily temperatures hover in the mid-70s, countless trillions of dandelions suddenly begin to bloom. They thrive on all seven continents – even Antarctica. Historically, this member of the daisy family is prized as great medicine and great food. It turns out that dandelions are storehouses of pharmacologically… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. Hollywood’s love affair with Indiana Jones launched an international passion for archeology. Who wouldn’t want to crack open the door of a long-forgotten temple – unseen by human eyes for centuries – in order to search for priceless treasures? OK, maybe crack open the door of a long-forgotten temple without all the cobwebs… Read more »
