Dungeons and Dugouts

It is not always easy to fit our everyday human lives into a divine and eternal context. But if we believe in a this-world-to-that-world continuity we should at least give it a try. Each Friday I go to breakfast with a group of friends. We talk about sports, the...

The Fourteen Bins

Yes, the Fourteen Bins remain in their place to this day. I didn’t see the movie, but I saw the trailer. Stand Up Guys is about aging gangsters looking for their last hurrah. Describing his ‘late-in-life’ predicament, Al Pacino’s character says “They say we die twice....

Home

Recently I went back to my hometown and visited that cemetery. I stood by my father’s grave. I knelt before the statue of Christ. It was raining. I got back in my truck and my boys were arguing. They saw the look on my face and grew silent. Then someone started to...

Upside-down Power

Trusting upside-down power is hard. We have been taught all our lives that power is found in strength and wealth and intimidation. But God’s power doesn’t work that way. Perhaps the greatest example is the grace He offers us. Is there a quieter, gentler, more trusting...

Labor Day

Sometimes the answer to “who is my neighbor?” is “the person who lives near you.” When I was in college I had a summer job as a tree surgeon. And we did not use a truck-mounted cherry-picker. We used ropes. Most of the time our task was ‘fine pruning.’ Fine pruning...

No Cupcakes for Gossips

After all the rhetoric about the problems and lawsuits this ordinance would cause I have not heard a thing. I am white. I am a married male. I have graduate degrees and I own my own home (well, me and the bank). I am in good health. And compared to the global...