To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. “Impossible” is a relative term. Sometimes, things we identify as impossible turn out to be quite possible after all. Over the past 27 years, Tom Cruise’s cinematic hero Ethan Hunt has undertaken six “impossible missions” and somehow succeeded every time. Next month he’ll star in the seventh installment of the action series – a… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. It’s not easy being a lost sheep. In one of his most famous stories (Luke 15:4-7), Jesus helps us imagine what it might be like to be a shepherd. “Suppose one of you has 100 sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the 99 in the open country… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. In the movies, when one gentleman offends or insults another, they immediately “throw down.” I challenge you to a duel! And just like that, out come the swords or pistols or some other means of settling things, usually with fatal consequences. But that’s not how dueling happened in real life. According to historian Scott… Read more »
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 »
