To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here When Baby Boomer kids in the 1950s weren’t pondering the threat of nuclear war, they were fretting about something far closer to home. We’re talking, of course, about cooties. Cooties were imaginary, invisible creatures that could be transmitted by touch – usually by swiping one’s hand on someone of the opposite sex. This was… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here For the past three days, the world’s attention has once again zeroed in on one of humanity’s most enduring wounds. Israelis and Palestinians are in open conflict. Early on Saturday, without warning, members of Hamas operating out of Gaza launched thousands of rockets into Israel. Ground-based militants breached security checkpoints and poured across the… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here According to the traditional American sports calendar, this is baseball’s big month. Falling leaves and pumpkin patches have always been associated with the World Series. “Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet,” according to the automaker’s famous commercial jingle, represent the heart of America – so seamlessly interwoven into our lives that baseball became… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Just 69 days into his presidency, Ronald Reagan was nearly killed by an assassin’s bullet. The outcome of that event, interestingly, is that the 70-year-old Reagan, while at his weakest, took on an aura of formidable strength, even while one of his “strongest” cabinet members appeared to falter before the watching world. On March… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here It’s not how you start. It’s how you finish. What you see poised on a single human finger in the image above is a pinecone. But it’s not just any pinecone. That’s the primary reproductive apparatus for the California redwood, the tallest living thing on the planet. Every one of the cone’s woody “scales” is… 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. How did the Morning Reflections begin? For nine years (2011-2020) I had the privilege of being the Director of Mission Integration (think “workplace pastor”) for about a thousand Indianapolis-based associates of… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Linda Wilson-Allen drives a metro-transit bus in San Francisco. But she is no ordinary bus driver. A few years ago, just before Thanksgiving, she saw a woman named Tanya standing in a bus shelter. Linda knows the people along her route so well that she instantly recognized Tanya as a newcomer to the area. … Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Great musicians write killer songs. One of history’s greatest musicians wrote a composition that almost “kills” those who are courageous enough to try to play it. We’re talking about Ludvig van Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata, arguably the ultimate piano masterpiece from the man who almost singlehandedly defined the technical possibilities of the keyboard. Beethoven wrote 32… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here It can be hard these days to get straight answers to simple questions. Ask a political candidate about any number of issues and you’re likely to get the runaround. That’s why it’s so refreshing that Duke philosophy professor Alex Rosenberg, in his book The Atheist’s Guide to Reality: Enjoying Life Without Illusions, gives simple,… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Franciscan priest and author Brennan Manning was fond of recounting a story about American G.I.s in France during World War 2. One of their number had been killed in action. They approached the priest in a local village and asked if they could bury their friend in the church cemetery…. Read more »
