The Civil War and Thanksgiving The history of this quintessentially American holiday provokes and challenges each year when I take time to ponder this oxymoron: The civil war and thanksgiving. Can anyone think of a less opportune time to declare a national holiday than in the middle of a war? Specifically a war between Americans? …
Contradictions of sin and mercy There are times when an essay from the past feels fitting. This is one of those times. Mostly because there is one man who better understands the contradictions of sin and mercy better than any other: Karol Wojtyla. His first published work was a series of meditations prepared at the …
When I learned that Overcomer was a new Kendricks Brothers movie, I resolved to see it. This is true for four reasons. Four years ago, a movie with the title, War Room, was irresistibly evocative to me… Prayer as war: the correlation of combat with happiness has long been one which applies to my life. Therefore, a …
It’s spring in Nevada And the benefits of my March cleanup efforts are everywhere I look. The ponds and streams constructed years ago now flow cleanly and powerfully. The roses are magnificent. I can recall so readily what this house looked like when we came here…can it possibly be seventeen years ago? There was nothing. …
A joyous lent? It isn’t something you can understand easily. At least I can’t. That essential connection between joy and sorrow. The sorrowful agony of the man on the cross and the joy of the resurrection. I think it’s why we write poetry. Because the two emotions sound wholly opposed, as if they live in …
A House in Haiti: A Counter-cultural Christmas Present “Wow…Really? It’s all paid? Someone in Haiti will get a house?” I was dumbfounded… I had emailed Food for the Poor because the money that had been debited from my account each month had stopped. I thought there was a glitch of some kind, it never occurred …
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Gratitude: What is it? The word gratitude doesn’t resemble what it signifies. Both the noun gratitude and its adverb grateful seem to me to be passive, inert, easily overlooked. Maybe that is why so few of us talk about it. In a world where so many billions live in conditions which would be considered unacceptable …
City Slickers Revisited: yesterday, July 4th. Remember the movie City Slickers? Billy Crystal as the ‘Dude’ from Manhattan who persuades two Manhattan friends to join him on a cattle drive in the west? Although the movie was released over thirty years ago, certain scenes and characters remain vivid. Especially the yuppies with the mid-life crises …
The seduction of noise. Do an online search and you can see a 21st century way of conceptualizing our addiction to distraction: noise pollution. Researchers have studied the effects of noise pollution and discovered its surprisingly broad impact upon adults and children. But the subject of this piece is even more insidious. Truthfully, is there any …
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Why do you pray? “Why do you pray?” “Because it is the only way I can figure out who I am.” My surprising response to my friend’s rhetorical question was heartfelt-perhaps too weighty to be understood by one who had not, like me, chosen to spend a large segment of their life without God. Being …