The Name at the Center of Everything

      Comments Off on The Name at the Center of Everything

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Almost 30 years ago, I attended a Promise Keepers gathering of about 40,000 pastors in Atlanta. It was an assembly that represented hundreds of different church groups and denominational affiliations. We heard speaker after speaker.  After a while their messages, many of which were genuinely inspiring, began to blend together. I… Read more »

Rediscovering Nature

      Comments Off on Rediscovering Nature

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Scientists called it the Anthropause. The rest of us called it the life-altering, routine-disrupting, hope-challenging COVID-19 pandemic. Five years ago, the World Health Organization alerted humanity to the highly contagious virus that has now claimed more than 7 million lives. Medical personnel labored beyond the point of exhaustion. Schools, churches, and… Read more »

A Higher Plateau

      Comments Off on A Higher Plateau

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here None of the seven astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger survived the explosion that tore it apart just 73 seconds after launch. But something traveling aboard the shuttle did survive. Workers tasked with recovering fragments of the ship discovered a black duffel bag floating in the Atlantic. Inside was a soccer… Read more »

Muddy Shoes

      Comments Off on Muddy Shoes

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Pope Francis, who stepped into the next world just a few hours after Easter, was a different kind of leader. In a world where presidents, pastors, and CEO’s all too often become autocratic and self-absorbed as their power increases, Francis grew steadily “smaller.” The 12 years of his papacy were characterized… Read more »

White Out

      Comments Off on White Out

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here All of us make mistakes.  With grace and grit, we can learn from our mistakes. And then there are those of us who actually earn from our mistakes.  That brings us to Bette Nesmith Graham, an executive secretary in the mid-1950s for the Texas Bank and Trust. Bette had a great… Read more »

God on the Hook

      Comments Off on God on the Hook

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here There is no more exasperating and wrenching human reality than suffering. It’s safe to say that “the problem of pain” has historically been the number one obstacle to trusting God.  Theologian John Stott put it this way: “The fact of suffering undoubtedly constitutes the single greatest challenge to the Christian faith, and… Read more »

Where Do We Go From Here?

      Comments Off on Where Do We Go From Here?

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Each day this Lent we’re looking at major “turning points” in Christian history – moments or seasons in which the story of God’s people took an important and often unexpected turn.   The sneaky thing about history is that it’s always happening. It may feel entirely safe to curl up in… Read more »

Surviving Communism

      Comments Off on Surviving Communism

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Each day this Lent we’re looking at major “turning points” in Christian history – moments or seasons in which the story of God’s people took an important and often unexpected turn.   If heaven is a place where we will finally have a chance to hear all the stories of what… Read more »

A Transformed Awareness of Women

      Comments Off on A Transformed Awareness of Women

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Each day this Lent we’re looking at major “turning points” in Christian history – moments or seasons in which the story of God’s people took an important and often unexpected turn.   It remains the most-watched match in tennis history. From one perspective, it didn’t really matter. It was just an… Read more »

The Second Vatican Council

      Comments Off on The Second Vatican Council

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Each day this Lent we’re looking at major “turning points” in Christian history – moments or seasons in which the story of God’s people took an important and often unexpected turn.   What a difference a century makes. In 1869, a pope called a special council in order to steer the… Read more »