Sometimes the unbelievable complexity of life brings amazement. Shorthand and lingo get batted around, effectively excluding anyone who hasn’t been part of the conversation from the beginning. Sometimes people use big...

Playing favorites isn’t fair! While nepotism isn’t illegal, the practice of giving family and friends special opportunity and privilege can have demoralizing effects on others. Morale crashes. Mistrust builds. And those...

A small brown rock sits on my desk amid other sentimental stuff—wind-up clacking teeth, a challenge coin from a police department I served as chaplain, a tiny carved wooden elephant from...

Love means never having to say you’re sorry” according to Erich Segal’s novel (Love Story), written nearly fifty years ago. That philosophy deems responsibility for hurt feelings unnecessary. Regret becomes irrelevant....

To have an identity is to be unique, to be distinguished, to have connection with others, to have history, to belong. In late 2014 a worldwide gathering focused on the plight...

Ilike my hammock. With it hanging between two pine trees, I can climb on, wait for the gentle swaying to stop, and gaze out on the lake that reflects the blue...

It’s frustrating when you recognize someone but can’t call the name. It’s on the tip of your tongue, but it’s not coming. Even finger snapping doesn’t bring the name to consciousness,...

What exactly does Jesus mean when the king hosting his son’s wedding banquet says, “Many are called, but few are chosen”? I have struggled with this parable because the king’s violent...

How would you respond if I publicly announce that you need to be of the same mind in the Lord with someone with whom you are in conflict? I always wonder...

The psalmist mentions several major offenses that the Israelites at the base of Mount Sinai commit. Then he dramatically sings about how Moses stands in the breach to change God’s mind...