To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here What are the most irritating words or phrases used in casual conversation? A pair of American institutions of higher education actually keep track of such things. Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, annually publishes a list of words that most people are ready to consign to the conversational… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Peggy Guggenheim figured she should at least give the guy a shot. The New York City socialite and art collector had crisscrossed Paris in 1940 as the Nazis closed in, purchasing a treasure trove of modern art. She returned home eager to put it on display – and, if possible, to… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here The late theologian Walter Wink called it the Myth of Redemptive Violence. It is the belief “that violence saves, that war brings peace, that might makes right. It is one of the oldest continually repeated stories in the world,” he wrote in his book The Powers That Be. Using force to… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Today’s post is a bit different. Once a year I pause to address some of the questions I hear most often from readers. Where do you get the ideas for the subjects you address? Everywhere. I enjoy books, so many of the ideas spring from whatever I happen to be reading. I’m especially… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Is it easier to break an old habit or start a new one? It isn’t even close. Research and experience demonstrate that it’s far more difficult to give up something we’re used to doing than to try something new. Human brains are wired to remember habitual behaviors – and that includes… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Being a restaurant server can be a thankless job. Sometimes literally. When given the chance to identify their least favorite customers, servers frequently mention the church crowd. One would think that those who populate restaurants after experiencing Sunday morning worship would be joyfully motivated to be kind and gracious, demonstrating their… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here As a general rule, I hesitate to make comments about the President of the United States. Over the past 10 years, I believe I’ve mentioned Donald Trump just five times. That’s a shame, because he is not only the most powerful human being on the planet, but unquestionably the most quotable…. Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here It’s simply called The Play. Radio announcer Joe Starkey, trying to describe what he had just seen, called it “the most amazing, sensational, dramatic, heart-rending, exciting, thrilling finish in the history of college football!” He just might be right. Even though the last-second, game-winning, five-lateral, walk-off kickoff return happened 43 years… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here A few days before Christmas 1989, things looked precarious for authoritarian Communist leaders. The Berlin Wall had fallen. The Soviet Union was on the ropes. Revolutions were toppling Eastern European governments. Nikolae Ceausescu, who had ruled Romania by means of sheer brutality since 1965, was determined to be the exception. He… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Humanity’s most heartbreaking conflict produced one of its most heartwarming stories. Today there are at least a dozen memorials in five different countries that honor Wojtek, the bear that went to war. The saga of Wojtek (pronounced VOY-tech) began in the spring of 1942, when thousands of Polish soldiers and civilians… Read more »
