To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. Once a year, instead of posting a “regular” reflection, I have the chance to step back to address some of the questions I hear most often from readers. When you look at the world these days, what grabs your attention? It’s impossible not to notice how hard it is for people to talk to… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. Eight summers ago, my two brothers and I embarked on the trip of a lifetime. Over the course of six days we traveled 100 miles in wooden dories on the turbulent Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. It was a blast. We experienced about 30 sets of rapids, three of which at the time… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. For most churches, Christmas Eve and Easter Sunday are the two annual high-water marks for attendance. Mother’s Day often comes in third. It has become an opportunity to celebrate the crucial role that parents (especially moms) play in raising up the next generation of Christian disciples. Years ago I remember standing… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. In 2008, three former college schoolmates living in San Francisco came up with a novel idea. Since hotel accommodations in the Bay Area were both hard to find and exceedingly expensive, they devised a website that would help out-of-towners locate short-term living quarters and breakfast – essentially, an opportunity for guests to… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here..In J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Dark Lord Sauron pours all of his power into a mere ring. When the ring is dissolved in the volcanic fires of Mt. Doom, Sauron’s seemingly invincible power vanishes, too. This was too much for one of Tolkien’s readers, a woman named Rhona Beare. Not… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here..The most telling argument against the Judeo-Christian understanding of the world is the silence of God. Prayers go unanswered. Children get sick and die. Dictators drag their countries into meaningless wars. Natural disasters claim thousands of lives. I recently had lunch with a friend who has had enough. The last two years of his… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. For something like a quarter century, a furniture store in my hometown of Indianapolis aired TV commercials that always began with the same 15 words. The announcer breathlessly rattled off these four sentences: You work hard for your money.Now spend your money smart.Be smart.Buy now! Each ad began with a video clip of someone… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. Needing to be right can sometimes be oh-so-wrong. I learned that more than 50 years ago while on a canoe trip down Sugar Creek in north-central Indiana with some of my high school friends. It was a beautiful spring day. The river was alive with insects, birds…and snakes. Every now and then we… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here The European adventurers who sailed west across the Atlantic in the 15th and 16th centuries discovered a new hemisphere. But on April 24, 1676, Anton von Leeuwenhoek, without leaving his home in the Netherlands, discovered a whole new world. Leeuwenhoek’s innate curiosity went far beyond the fabrics he peddled as a cloth merchant. … Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. Is there anything about the God who is worshiped by Jews and Christians that is different from other notions of God available on the global religious smorgasbord? The answer is yes. There are a number of things that are uniquely attributed to Yahweh, the Father of Jesus. Perhaps the most startling claim… Read more »