In light of the Supreme Court’s ponderings on the appropriateness of the Seven Dirty Words on television, I’d like to tell you where I recently found a g...
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Columnist resolves to write authentically in 2012
Being a columnist isn’t always an easy gig. It often requires walking a fine line between expressing what I really think and what simply entertains.
As every columnist can testify, opinions can sell papers or lose subscriptions. If I play it too safe, I bore you. If I venture too far into religious or political topics, or share personal vulnerabilities and temptations, I run the risk of offending you.
That said, I’m not looking ... Read on...
God's plan can take your breath away
Last week, I was 400 miles from home, teaching a military marriage class in San Diego, when my bedside phone rang at 4 a.m.
The first words I really heard was, “Dad, she stopped breathing!”
My son was referring to the same daughter who had recently recovered from sudden and unexplainable multiple organ failure.
He went on to explain that he and ... Read on...
Sometimes, pastors don't have a choice
The pastor or the faith group leader will often be called upon to play one of two roles, either priest or prophet.
A biblical example of the latter role is Nathan, who discovered that King David slept with a married woman and then had the woman’s husband killed. Davy figured he’d pulled a fast one until Nate appeared complaining about a local rancher who stole a poor farmer’s lamb and had it slaughtered for a party.
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Faithfulness of God is a great non sequitur
This week, after nearly losing my youngest daughter, I had some time to ponder some alternative meanings of the word: non sequitur. According to wiki.answers.com, a non sequitur is “the attempted connection of two things in a sentence that have nothing to do with each other.” Translated from the Latin, not sequitur means, “does not follow.” It is where we get the word “sequence.”
Specifically, her safe... Read on...
There's more than one way to help a vet
I get a lot of email from folks asking me how to help veterans and active duty servicemembers.
Of course, the USO is always my first response, as I’ve been on the receiving end of so much they’ve given.
I recently put the question to a dozen military chaplains and military family service organizations, and in observance of Veterans Day, I am listing their suggestions.Read on...
You'll fall off track if forgiveness you lack
It’s been 13 years since a disagreement between a good colleague and myself sent me into a yearlong depression. While I recovered from the clinical depression, I replaced it with an elaborately resentful picture of events.
The details aren’t important, but at the time my colleague would have probably told you that I was being a selfish person and I might have said he was being too critical. And there it set in my mind for yea... Read on...
Finding peace, beauty amid God's glory
My wife, Becky and I flew to Boston where we rented a Cruise America motorhome to ramble around New England. Our RV is a 27-foot rolling condo equipped with a kitchen, central heat, a bathroom and what I call a “queen bed,” more for the woman who sleeps with me than the size of the bed.
The upside of renting a motorhome is that we avoid the “sanitary facilities,” as the state of Massachusetts so gingerly describes their roadside restrooms. ... Read on...
Strange twist of fate
The Waco Tornado remains the worst tornado in Texas history and up until the Joplin, Mo., tornado on May 23 of this year, it had been the 10th worst in the nation.
On May 11, 1953, at 4:20 p.m., my mother stood waiting for a bus in downtown Waco, Texas.
Fifteen minutes later, an F5 tornado touched down in the town to begin a 23-mile path of destruction that took 114 lives and injured 597 more. What happened in those intervening 15 minutes is the subject of this c... Read on...
