British author and theologian C.S. Lewis once suggested that human lives are like ships on the high seas. Every ship has to address three issues. The first issue is how not to sink. That’s integrity. The second issue is how not to bump into other ships. That’s the domain of human relationships. The third issue is the most important: Why… Read more »
Samson is one of those Bible personalities who has been able to accomplish the near-impossible: make Sunday School interesting for elementary school-age boys. He was absurdly strong. His exploits were gloriously public. He singlehandedly leveled the playing field between the Israelites and their unfriendly next-door neighbors, the Philistines. But Samson’s story, which covers four chapters of the book of Judges (13-16),… Read more »
Critics called it the most expensive home movie ever made. In order to promote the release of his new album, John Lennon and wife Yoko Ono collaborated in 1971 on the filming of an 81-minute “rockumentary.” The film opens with John and Yoko strolling through a bank of fog enveloping their wooded estate in Tittenhurst Park, an hour’s drive west… Read more »
Who would have dreamed that the marriage of an excommunicated monk and a runaway nun would lead to the most admired expression of family life in northern Europe over the past 500 years? The monk was Martin Luther, the man who almost singlehandedly launched the Protestant Reformation. The nun was Katharina von Bora, one of a small group of young… Read more »
So, is it worth ten bucks to break the habit of making destructive comments about other people? Marshall Goldsmith thought so. Which is why he chose to put his money where his mouth had gone all too often. Verbal put-downs and destructive witticisms aren’t just the hallmarks of seventh grade boys. Most contemporary American sitcoms roll out never-ending repartees of… Read more »
“I shall return.” Those three words are almost certainly the most memorable utterance of any military leader in American history. That’s because an entire nation was inspired by them during some of the darkest hours of World War II. A day after bombing the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Japanese forces invaded the Philippines, where General… Read more »
Few people have come to know the inner workings of Capitol Hill as intimately as the late journalist and bestselling author Cokie Roberts. Both her parents served the state of Louisiana as Congressional representatives – her mother succeeding her father after his untimely death. Roberts spent more than 40 years as a political reporter, senior news analyst for National Public… Read more »
Soma Sema. Those may not seem like fighting words, but they seriously riled up the first generation of Christians two millennia ago. Soma Sema was one of the slogans of a group of influential intellectuals who called themselves Gnostics. The name comes from the Greek word gnosis, which means “knowledge.” The Gnostics considered themselves the original Wise Guys, or “people… Read more »
In 1898, a German scientist believed he had discovered the Holy Grail of pain relief. Heinrich Dreser, who worked as a chemist for Bayer – the corporation that had created a remarkable new drug called aspirin – was hoping to synthesize a painkiller that wouldn’t lead to addiction. The world had long known about morphine, the powerful, naturally-occurring opioid. But… Read more »
What’s the most pathetic / head-scratching / cringe-worthy verse in the Bible? There are numerous candidates. But one of the finalists has to be Exodus 32:24, where Aaron, Israel’s first high priest, abandons all leadership responsibility and accountability before his brother Moses. Moses has been up on Mt. Sinai for 40 days – receiving, among other things, the Ten Commandments. … Read more »
