For me, the cliché “I can read you like a book,” means I understand a person very well, that I can tell what they’re thinking without having to ask. Indeed, we’re all living and breathing books. I have believed that since I began my professional writing career more than 30 years ago. Most of that […]
Fraternal correction is defined as the admonishing of one’s neighbor with the purpose of reforming him, or, if possible, preventing his sinful indulgence in the first place. The very idea of this makes America 2015 ™ cringe, because even to most Christians, those who are responsible for fraternally correcting each other, the concept of evaluating the […]
A March weekend in 2005 has affected my life as profoundly as almost any other event. Not only did my two-day experience improve the quality of my life, it probably saved my life. Numerous times. I gained a true understanding about the invaluable importance of making my spiritual journey with companions. And to think it […]
Where do you go when it starts to rain? That and some related “musical questions” have been playing over and over in my mind for the last few months. They have made for some interesting soul-searching. For me, the self-examination began on the road. I have to take three business trips annually, all to Kansas […]
His name was Saul. In his young and undiscovered days, before he became Paul the Apostle, he worked as lead prosecutor for the Sanhedrin, the Jewish Supreme Court in Jerusalem. In those days Saul was eager to make a name for himself, to kill or to die to obtain notoriety. “Someday,” he thought, “I’m going […]
I have more than 1,100 friends on Facebook. Are they all really my friends? Fair question. My wife and children frequently voice their doubts that I even know that many people, much less can call that many people friends. My family has challenged me with this: “How many of those people, if they died, would […]
Facebook promotes a very odd concept of ’knowing’ someone, and it has led to the further warping of our sense of friendship. My experience, like many of you, has been a passing meeting with someone leads to a friend request. But, we are not friends. We are barely acquaintances and yet we claim to know […]
Everything I ever needed to know about hospitality, I learned from my children. When their grandparents, friends or birthday party guests are scheduled to come, my children are beside themselves with excitement. The front door is opened about as much times as I hear the question “When will they get here?” The neighborhood playmates, who […]
The dreaded phrase, “I think it would be better if we were just friends,” has been feared by teenagers for decades. The fear that, after professing love for a girl, she’ll look at him and whip out this infamous line has kept many a boy from even suggesting that next step. And though much could […]
The moment doesn’t last that long. A few minutes, tops. It happens every Saturday morning I’m able to drag my body out of bed at 6 o’clock to join my brothers in Christ at a local Bread Company. Either Larry Boldt or Jim LaVictoire passes out a card to each member of our group — […]
Some nights, when there are no clouds, I look up at the night sky hoping to see so many twinkling stars. But the lights of the city are bright where I live. They can obscure the lights of the heavens and thus make it difficult to notice anything more than the most brilliant of stars. […]
Many people carry the painful wound of a divorced heart. The pain can be hard to understand for those of us who have never been through a divorce. It is a wonder to me that you can pray for your future spouse, sacrifice for them and get counsel to help you discover if this person […]
“Why do you bring God into every conversation?” This simple question was posed to me recently by someone I love dearly. Let me attempt to explain. How do you not bring the Author of Life into life itself? How can I speak of the reason for my joy, my hope, my strength without naming its […]
During the early years of Facebook mania, I posted pics of my kids, events, travels, anecdotes and chanted with the universal FB voice: “Look how great I am; how amazing my life is; how many people like me!” While I really wanted to post about how great God is, a social network broadcasting my religious […]
For Part I of this series, go here; for Part II, here; for Part III, here. This is the final installment. “And nothing you can say or do will stop me, And a thousand dead friends can’t stop me…” –Mountain Goats, “All Up the Seething Coast” Dan Barden, author of the excellent noir tragicomedy The Next Right […]
I need to get this off my chest: my husband is not my best friend. He’s never been my best friend and never will be. I experience some envy of the young brides and long-married wives who contentedly call their spouse “my best friend.” Facebook has a site called “My Husband Is My Best Friend” […]
Someone should take a poll asking Americans how they feel about polling. I’m pretty sure our shared distaste for it is one thing about which nearly all of us would agree. Of all the polling data released in the week leading up to Tuesday’s election, the one that struck me as most revealing came from […]
Two friends were walking through the desert. During some point of the journey, they had an argument and one friend slapped the other one in the face. The one who had been slapped was hurt but without saying anything, wrote in the sand: Today my best friend slapped me in the face. They kept on […]
Yes, that’s what I said: You need to be your own best friend. I need to be my own best friend. “Wait!” you might say. “Aren’t you a Christian? Shouldn’t Jesus be my best friend?” Absolutely! But we have to let him in. Jesus said, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; […]
A gorgeous jacket caught my eye as I was flipping through an issue of a fashion magazine, trying to find the “perfect” haircut—you know, just cute enough to say I am still “fashionable” yet not too cute as to say “I’m 54 years-old trying to look 30.” The jacket was what I would call “car […]
Recently God brought into my life a woman who I now call “friend.” I spent some time with her recently and as I left I was buoyed by our visit. It got me to thinking how perfectly she fit into my life and reflecting on the question: What sort of friends does a woman “need” […]
I have a very dear friend I have known since high school. We were both baptized Catholic as babies, raised in Catholic homes, and received all of our sacraments. I was in her Catholic wedding and she was in mine. We are Godparents of each other’s children. Where we stray is in our political convictions. […]
My name is Cheryl. And I am a weakling. That’s the kind of group I want to be in: the kind of group where we each take the stand and own up to who we are—who we really are. Not the avatars we put out in the world through our blogs and our tweets; but […]
There seems to be a growing idea in our world today that we don’t actually need men for much more than their “contribution” to the furthering of the human race. This idea has become so prevalent that an opinion piece about it has made its way to the New York Times. Greg Hampikian, the author […]
