To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here It’s hard to overstate the eagerness of many underage men to join America’s armed forces in World War II. Calvin Graham was one of them. In August 1942 he walked into a recruiting station in Fort Worth, Texas. The recruiting officer had a pretty good idea Calvin was too young to… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Who could have imagined that followers of Jesus would owe a debt of gratitude to Friederick Nietzsche? That particular German philosopher, after all, has long been regarded as one of history’s arch-atheists. Nietzsche (1844-1900) was the intellectual who popularized the phrase “God is dead” – and then challenged his fellow nonbelievers… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Like a lot of people, Cliff Edwards wanted to hit the big time. Unlike most people, he actually succeeded. In 1909, Edwards dropped out of school in Hannibal, Missouri – he was 14 years old at the time – and became a traveling entertainer. He sang in saloons and flophouses across… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here How did hurricanes get their names? It’s a long and interesting story. As Eric Jay Dolin reports in his book A Furious Sky: The Five-Hundred-Year History of America’s Hurricanes, there were no standard naming protocols prior to the middle of the 20th century. Storms were often tagged with the particular year… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Invictus is one of history’s most enduring expressions of self-reliance. It came from the pen of William Ernest Henley (1849-1903), a highly regarded poet and literary critic during Britain’s Victorian Era. From the age of 12, Henley had battled tuberculosis in the bone of his left leg. At age 20 it had… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here “I will tell you my secret: I have doubts.” Those are the opening words of John Ortberg’s 2008 book Faith and Doubt. As a general rule, we applaud individuals for such transparency. A confession of doubt these days is regarded as a sign of authenticity. Of course, we don’t really want… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here In his role as a feature writer for an outdoor magazine, Mark Adams writes about great adventures. Until a decade ago, however, he had never experienced one firsthand. All that changed when Adams hired a mountain guide and decided he would retrace the steps of the celebrated explorer Hiram Bingham (the… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Dandelion season is once again upon us. There’s a lot to love about these ubiquitous “weeds,” which grow in abundance on every continent, including Antarctica. They’re beautiful. Their very name (from dent de lion, French for “lion’s tooth,” a description of their jagged green leaves), generates smiles. They can even be… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here There’s a long-standing superstition in Indy Car racing that green cars are bad luck. Mel Kenyon, a 32-year-old rookie in 1965, was sponsored by Sprite. That meant his sleek racer would bear the soft drink’s lemon-lime hue. Kenyon failed to qualify for his first Indy “500” that year. But the brilliant dirt track… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Beware a pair of words that have the power to steal your life: If only. Relationship expert Les Parrott asserts, “Once you begin a sentence with if only, you have sealed the deal with regret.” If only I had saved a few dollars every week, the way everyone told me, I would… Read more »
