It’s not uncommon to hear someone offering the following counsel about reading the Bible: just skip over the begats. I’ve said it. If you want to read the Bible, especially if you endeavor to read the whole thing – front to back, then it feels okay to give you a
“Someday, you will have something very important to say, and the world will listen,” my Dad said. I gazed quietly out the window of his Volkswagen camper van as it slowly carried us down the mountain. My brothers, sprawled across the plaid banquette seats, were busy reading comic books on
One danger we all face is falling into the trap of stereotyping others. In our Wednesday evening study of David Brooks’s How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others and Being Deeply Seen, we learn that one thing that blocks us from seeing another person is “essentialism.”
“But those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:31)
I heard those words for the first time in a stirring sermon delivered by Eric Liddell, the great Scottish runner, in the
After about sixty of us watched the Philadelphia Eleven documentary about the eleven women who were the first ordained to the priesthood in the Episcopal Church, I shared a story I learned only recently about that occasion.
I just came across a quote from Lucille Clifton, which the universe was clearly dropping into my lap as blog fodder. So here it is:
“You can murder poems, I mean, I’ve done it, when you start thinking too hard in your own way and you start intellectualizing, because I think a poem
Tuesday of last week marked the Feast of Saint Barnabas. His name means “son of encouragement.” His original name was Joseph, but when his fellow apostles recognized his gift for encouraging others, they changed his name. Early on, Barnabas sold a piece of land that he owned. He took the money he received
A couple of years ago, a church board of which I’m a member made a large grant to Literacy Mid-South. Since I was encouraging many of you to volunteer with this organization as part of this new partnership, I thought it might be time to practice what I preach and volunteer myself. I went through
Last week, after church, my son and I packed up the car and drove over the Mississippi River bridge. We were bound for the small town of Newport, Arkansas, where I had scored a last-minute reservation for a room in a hotel that didn’t look too seedy. We got
Yesterday I was talking with a fellow Calvary-ite, and he pulled out his phone mid-conversation to share two quotations from Tom Shadyac’s Lenten sermon of last week. A lot of things are worth pointing out about this moment. One, his phone was a tool of focus and not distraction (but that’s