Our community was painfully rocked last week by the crash of a plane carrying five leaders (four pastors and one lay person) of one of the churches of our city. The Lead Pastor was the only person who survived. Questions have been swirling, especially in the Christian...
Joe E. Trull tells of a primitive tribe located deep in the South American jungles. Anthropologists learned the most important role within the tribe was the "keeper" of the flame. Since fire is so precious -- and takes such effort to recreate -- one member is...
Truth gets our attention in all sorts of ways. A Chicago suburbanite put on a last spurt of speed to catch his train but missed it. A bystander remarked, “If you’d run a little faster you would have made it.” “No,” the suburbanite replied, “it wasn’t a case of...
As a preacher and writer, I use a lot of words, hopefully most of them simple with meanings well known. Lately, maybe because of my age, I find myself doubting the way I have spelled a word, and I check it out. Most of the time I use my cell phone, but as a creature...
It was hard to believe: 162-year sentence deemed excessive. That was the headline (Commercial Appeal, Dec. 16, 2022). The story was of a man, Courtney Anderson, who in 2020 was sentenced to 162 years in prison for repeated non-violent offenses. I found it difficult to...
As a preacher and writer, I use a lot of words, hopefully most of them simple and the meanings well known. Lately, maybe because of my age, I find myself doubting the way I have spelled a word, and I check it out. Sometimes I use my cell phone, but as a creature of...
Our language reflects dominant issues in culture. I don’t know when it began but we hear a new word a lot these days: woke. I have to keep looking up the meaning: an adjective derived from African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) meaning “alert to racial prejudice...
George Bernard Shaw once wrote: “I am by nature and destiny a preacher, but I have no Bible, no creed. The preacher must preach the way of life...Oh, if I could only find it!” The Apostle Paul had found it — and he preached it. In two succinct verses, he underscores...
We are in what the Christian calendar calls Advent. In a recent blog, I mentioned the Christian worship practice of lighting a candle each Sunday of Advent each signifying the four traditional Advent themes: Hope, Peace, Love, and Joy. Last week I reflected on peace;...