Tis the season for gratitude. Here is a list of just a few of the many people and things I am grateful for this year. The most generous congregation I have ever known, Country Club Christian Church. You all are amazing. From the volunteers who work with the Kansas City Read More...
From the perspective of riding in a van through the narrow streets of Port Au Prince, this country can easily appear to be not much more than a chaotic mess. Nothing could be further from the truth. Once we stepped out of our van we discovered a resilient and hard working people. Read More...
My boys are five years apart in age but both of them, at the age of three, loved the book, Can’t You Sleep Little Bear? Little Bear is wide awake. He is afraid of the dark. He asks his daddy for a night light. Daddy bear brings a light, then another, and Read More...
Two thousand years ago, James’ advice to the church is still pretty good: “Let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger…” This is street theology. This advice comes from everyday living in the real world. James is not worried about the meaning of life or the doctrine of Read More...
The end is a beginning but it is not always an easy thing to face. Endings often bring confusion, sadness and pain. They symbolize loss and disorientation. Anne Lamott says that her two favorite prayers are “Help me” and “thank you.” I like that but sometimes I feel like my life gets Read More...
A few years ago we decided to renovate our kitchen and family room. As the work began we noticed a slight warping in the kitchen floor. We went under the house to see if we could diagnose the problem. Sure enough, we found a large support beam with a crack running through Read More...
The Ten Commandments seem to pop up in the culture every now and then. There have been legal and religious fights over putting them on display in a courthouse or on the lawn in front of the court or in schools or, well, whatever. It all gets rather boring. I’ve wondered, in Read More...
I practice prayer. At times I find it dull and boring. Sometimes it feels like a terrible waste of time. After all, there are emails to answer and phone calls to make and meetings to attend and memos to write. But I do it anyway because I have found that the more Read More...
Peter wrote to the early church, “rejoice in so far as you are sharing Christ’s sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed.” I do not normally put rejoice and suffering in the same sentence. But there is a serious lesson for us Read More...
Theologian Stanley Hauerwas writes, “The work of Jesus was not a new set of ideals or principles for reforming or even revolutionizing society, but the establishment of a new community, a people that embodied forgiveness, sharing and self sacrificing love in its rituals and discipline. In that sense the visible church is Read More...
I love the summer. When I was a kid summer was for playing baseball with my buddies, hanging out at the beach or just sitting around in the evening watching the Giants beat the Dodgers (that didn’t really happen very often back then). Save The long days of summer also give us Read More...
Summer means vacations, lots of ice tea, time at the neighborhood pool and the chance to read more than usual. Here are a few of the books on my reading list for the next three months. Disciples and the Bible, M Eugene Boring. This will be a great way to refresh my Read More...
A young man visited the great theologian, Martin Luther. This man was worried that he may be committing a sin without knowing it. He was concerned that he may be sent to eternal fire for something he didn’t even realize he was doing wrong. This poor guy had almost no faith. He Read More...
While on retreat a few weeks ago with a group known as The Desert Brothers one of the guys showed the rest of us an ad from a magazine. It was a promo piece for Bose earphones. The ad said: you’ll love what you hearand what you don’t. Excitedly he said, “I Read More...
Elizabeth Weil observes what is happening in the world of young people. In order to get ready for these new days she writes, “Prepare to feel obsolete. It’s the first step to moving ahead.” The first time I read that I put a question mark in the margin. The next time I Read More...
