The school year began in the local public schools last week. As I watched the bus drive down the street and saw all the back-to-school photos that my friends put up on Facebook, I couldn’t help but feel a little sad. My kids are homeschooled. There is no big yellow school bus for us. There’s […]
During the last several months, I have felt a distinct and powerful calling to obtain and embrace a certain virtue. It has led me to daily reciting a certain prayer to the point of writing it on my heart. I have found it one of the most difficult prayer devotions I ever have attempted. The […]
The last month has, at times, been a blur. After being hit by a car on my bike just over a month ago, I have had to look at life through a different lens. Is there really an “upside” to tragedy? Indulge me as I reflect on the lessons I believe God is trying to […]
Billboards around St. Louis recently are showing a new advertising slogan for a franchise of gyms: “What Will Be Your Legacy?” Nothing against people who enjoy working out and lifting weights — which I should do more often — but my idea of a real legacy to leave my family and friends has nothing to […]
The Gospels recount Jesus’s healing of a paralytic who is lowered through the roof of a house. Initially, Jesus tells the man “Your sins are forgiven.” This upsets some scribes and Pharisees who ask themselves, “Who is this man who blasphemes and forgives sins?” But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil […]
Among the many things the United States has given to the world, there is the grossly over-inflated regard for pop culture. Granted, there has been some version of “pop culture” perhaps as long as there has been public entertainment, admired teachers, respected leaders and producers of literature. But modern American pop culture has taken things […]
When I was young child growing up in the 70’s, I remember seeing greeting cards and cheesy home décor with the quote, “Love means never having to say you’re sorry,” an oft quoted line from the melodramatic film Love Story. It never made sense to me. If that is indeed true, I would tell myself, […]
In June I had my right hip replaced. Twenty years of running eroded the cartilage in the joint and when the pain became intolerable I elected to go under the knife. Parish elders said, “You’re too young to have hip surgery.” (I’m 43.) In the words of Indiana Jones: “It’s not the years, it’s the […]
I like to play this little game now and then: I’ll pick a word – or as is the case more often, a certain word seems to choose me by rolling around unexpectedly in my mind for several days. At a certain point, feeling unable to ignore it any longer, I will sit down and answer […]
Whenever someone insults us, we usually come tearing back, ready to defend our reputation, our honor, or whatever it was that we perceive was insulted. We might even grant that on some level we deserved the insult, but not from them. “Only God can judge me,”we say. But for as much as this is true, […]
When I was young, it was fashionable to grow a beard and long hair, put on a tie-dyed t-shirt, faded jeans and head off to Europe to “find oneself.” Often I wondered what would happen if those searchers didn’t like the inner-self they found? At a personal level, I had already met my inner self, in […]
Humiliations (Haikus) Chisel cutting stone Sculpter’s blow carves, molds, and lights Forms stones into hearts Some are well deserved Some are most beneficial Illumination Humiliations Tear a wound in tender hearts Beware, lest you kill… I don’t regret mine Reject Humiliations? They straighten the spine! Never be the cause~ Reject humiliating! Choose kindness and love. […]
The greatest among you must be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted. (Matthew 23:11–12). God’s ways are not naturally our ways. God calls us to be servants or slaves to others. Humility is truth, that is the truth of who we are, including the good and […]
“Verily Thou art a God that hidest Thyself, O God of Israel, the Savior” (Isaiah 45:15). Man is haughty and prideful, and in his conceit he constructs deities to suit his temperament: deities regal and terrible, blazing with fierce glory and swollen with righteous strength. It is not therefore surprising that so many fail to […]
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth (Isaiah 53:7). Perhaps the most stunning revelation of Christianity is the deep humility of God. In Jesus of […]
Have you ever wondered why you aren’t more joyful? I have. I think as a Christian I should be filled with joy, and yet at times I struggle with sadness. Often it is because I can’t seem to balance all the issues I am dealing with. Adam and Eve, before the Fall, had no problem […]
