To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here I’ve had a lifetime love affair with the Indianapolis “500.” As a resident of central Indiana, it’s been relatively easy to make my way to the track on race day so I can join 300,000 of my closet friends. Back in the early 1970s, however, things got trickier. The date of… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here In an episode of the TV series Boston Legal, Tom Selleck’s fiancé struggles with fits of uncontrolled laughter. The only way to break the spell is to remind her of a tragedy. Selleck speaks just two words: “Bill Buckner.” She immediately stops laughing. Why does that name, in the minds of… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here My life is not actually about me. In my head and in my heart, I know that’s true. The problem, of course, is that I really have a hard time choosing to live as if that were true. I am constantly thinking about myself. It takes no effort whatsoever. When I… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here When challenged to name an influential president, most Americans gravitate to those four granite heads on Mount Rushmore. Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, and Teddy Roosevelt, after all, were undeniably key difference-makers in our nation’s history. But it’s likely that the president who will most influence your speech today will be America’s eighth… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here There has never been a shortage of utopian dreamers – individuals who believe they hold the key to humanity’s ultimate happiness. One of them was Alexander Scriabin, a Russian musician who became convinced he had been chosen to write a masterwork that would usher in the very end of history. Born… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Anne Rice stunned the literary world in 1998 when she announced she had become a Christian. As a self-described “pessimistic atheist” and the author of the supernatural thriller Interview With the Vampire and its sequels, Rice seemed to be one of the least likely celebrity converts. She acknowledged that many of… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Who’s the most dominant American individual in the history of the Summer Olympics? Sportscaster Mike Greenberg teases that question in Got Your Answers, a book that endeavors to settle “the top 100 greatest sports arguments.” Track and field superstar Carl Lewis comes to mind. So does gymnast Simone Biles. How about… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Almost 30 years ago, I attended a Promise Keepers gathering of about 40,000 pastors in Atlanta. It was an assembly that represented hundreds of different church groups and denominational affiliations. We heard speaker after speaker. After a while their messages, many of which were genuinely inspiring, began to blend together. I… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Scientists called it the Anthropause. The rest of us called it the life-altering, routine-disrupting, hope-challenging COVID-19 pandemic. Five years ago, the World Health Organization alerted humanity to the highly contagious virus that has now claimed more than 7 million lives. Medical personnel labored beyond the point of exhaustion. Schools, churches, and… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here None of the seven astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger survived the explosion that tore it apart just 73 seconds after launch. But something traveling aboard the shuttle did survive. Workers tasked with recovering fragments of the ship discovered a black duffel bag floating in the Atlantic. Inside was a soccer… Read more »
