To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here It’s awards season in Hollywood. This Sunday’s Oscar presentations come on the heels of the Screen Actors Guild awards, the BAFTAs, and the Golden Globes. In truth, when it comes to Hollywood, every season is awards season. When you include all the technical and cinematic specialty events, there are more than… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here How can we know if we’re making wise decisions and heading down the best possible path? A nautical term gives us an excellent shot at getting things right. The Latin word portus means harbor, port, or place of refuge. When the prefix ob (“towards”) is placed in front of portus, we get… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here In the cinematic buddy adventure City Slickers, Billy Crystal plays Mitch Robbins. Mitch is having a classic mid-life meltdown. His marriage, his job, and his passion for life are all flatlined. When it’s Mitch’s turn to talk to his son’s elementary school class on Career Day, he can’t muster any enthusiasm for… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here “I did an awesome job.” That would be a loose translation of what God said when he looked around at the newly created earth. Or as Genesis 1:31 puts it, everything was “very good.” The first not-good aspect of reality shows up in the middle of chapter two: “The Lord God said,… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here There’s a lot of talking going on out there. Depending on who’s counting, there appear to be at least 3.1 million active podcasts, and 165 million episodes floating in the cloud. There has never been a moment in history when so many words are so easily accessible to so many listeners…. Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here If you’re a chess player, you have probably experienced something of the despair depicted in this painting. The young man on the right is contemplating chess catastrophe. His remaining pieces are surrounded. His opponent appears to have just captured his queen. But there’s a good deal more happening here than first meets… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here The B-17 Flying Fortress was America’s workhorse heavy bomber during World War II. Before Germany and Japan surrendered, 12,731 of the planes dropped more than 1.5 million tons of bombs. Among the young men on those bombing runs were actors Clark Gable and James Stewart; NFL coach Tom Landry; Star Trek… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here I am a stark raving fan of Emerson, Lake and Palmer, the 1970s British progressive rock group. Classic rock stars are a disappearing breed, of course, and in 2016 the world lost both Keith Emerson and Greg Lake. Therefore my last chance to connect personally with ELP is Carl Palmer, widely… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Certain sermons have a way of getting stuck in your head. My colleague Tim Gardner preached a message almost 30 years ago that I have never forgotten. It was called “We Do Not Have” – a rather strange turn of phrase that springs from a rather strangely-worded text in the New… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Harry Truman was an “accidental” president of the United States. Plucked from obscurity to be Franklin D. Roosevelt’s running mate in 1944, no one realistically imagined he would ever sit in the Oval Office. But the little-known Missouri politician became America’s 33rd chief executive when FDR suddenly died the following April…. Read more »
