To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here There were no fall harvest festivals in ancient Israel. That’s because the growing season in the Promised Land, at least from our perspective, seems to be upside-down. Yes, the so-called “latter grapes” were gathered in the middle of autumn. Otherwise, the months of October and November were for ploughing and sowing…. Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here It’s time to take on what some counselors and psychologists call the Other F Word. Fine. As in, “How are you doing?” “I’m fine, thank you.” End of conversation. End of communication. Except, “fine” hardly qualifies as an authentic meeting of minds and hearts. “Fine” can be a one-word stand-in for a remarkable… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here On this Election Day in the United States, it’s clear that no matter who receives the most votes, the path ahead of us is going to be steep. Is there a word of encouragement that all of us can affirm during the climb – one that appeals, as Abraham Lincoln put it, to… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here For thousands of years, people have looked to the stars during troubled times. From ancient Mesopotamia to the dawn of the internet, astrology has been a source of reassurance and guidance. Astrology’s staying power into our own time has frankly stunned the world’s academic community. The notion that it’s possible to… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here The late Richard Halverson was Chaplain of the United States Senate from 1981 through 1994. Prior to that he had spent years as a local church pastor. A friend once asked him, “Dick, what was the most significant thing you did that brought vitality and spiritual strength to the people you… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa displays the most beguiling smile in the history of painting. For that matter, hers may be the most famous smile in human history. Period. Mysteries abound. No one knows with certainty the identity of the young Italian woman who sat for Leonardo sometime between 1503 and 1506. Nor can… Read more »
“Blessed to be a blessing.” That turn of phrase never actually appears on the pages of Scripture. But it’s an accurate summation of God’s ongoing plan to rescue our broken world. God will bless a particular individual, who will in turn become the conduit of God’s blessings to the rest of humanity. We learn in Genesis 12 that the particular individual is… Read more »
It matters when we see someone’s face. A few years ago, Jonathan Turner, an Israeli physician, conducted a fascinating experiment. With their consent, he took photos of 300 men and women who were coming in for CT scans. He attached the photos to their images that were then submitted to radiologists. The radiologists – who knew nothing of Turner’s plan –… Read more »
“Well, bless your heart.” What a wonderful thing to hear. Someone wants to impart a blessing upon your inmost being. But before you begin to savor that inward rush of joy and gratitude, it’s just possible that those words mean something else. “Bless your heart” – especially if you’re in the American South – can fall anywhere along a spectacular range of… Read more »
According to Greek legend, it took the hero Odysseus 10 years to reach home by journeying across the Mediterranean Sea after the Trojan War. But that’s nothing. So far an armada of plastic toys has been at sea for 29 years. And some of them have gone halfway around the world. The great Plastic Duck Odyssey began on January 10,… Read more »
