To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. Gregory Boyle is a Jesuit priest who leads a special ministry. The guy with the snowy beard in the picture above is the founder and executive director of Homeboy Industries, a gang-intervention program in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles – arguably the gang capital of the world. His remarkable book Tattoos on… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. “Your legs are thinner than my arms!” That’s how one of the contestants at Nathan’s Hot Dog eating contest on Coney Island on July 4, 2001, mocked the new guy. The new guy was Takeru Kobayashi, a 23-year-old Japanese economics student who had taken up competitive eating as a way to pay his light… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. Who was the first president of the United States? That may sound like the easiest question on an American history pop quiz. But over the years a surprising number of different answers have been proposed. It really comes down to when America actually became a nation. The Fourth of July commemorates 1776’s Declaration of Independence… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. For most people, the name Tim Berners-Lee doesn’t ring a bell. But what he accomplished 33 years ago will almost certainly impact every day of your life this summer. The British software consultant (who is now known as Sir Tim Berners-Lee) singlehandedly dreamed up the World Wide Web. No, he didn’t invent the Internet. That… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. She became known as the little girl who seemed to be carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders. For the better part of a year, six-year-old Ruby Bridges walked to school in the company of armed federal marshals who were assigned to protect her. William Frantz Elementary in New Orleans, like many… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. People are defined by their problems. Here’s a more accurate way to put it: You are defined by whatever you consider your most important problem. A heartbreakingly large number of people in the world have to address the same vexing problems day after day: What are we going to eat today?How can I keep my… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. Author and sociologist Tony Campolo is frequently invited to speak about his faith around the country. A few years back he visited a church in Oregon. Following his message, Tony was approached by a man who was in the last stages of a battle with cancer. Campolo laid his hands on him and prayed… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. We must not let the work of God through us destroy the work of God in us. That was a lesson I had to learn as a young pastor trying to launch a new congregation just outside Indianapolis. I learned it the hard way. North American congregations have traditionally cherished the virtue of hard work… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. For most of its history, the island nation of Japan has remained culturally isolated from the rest of the world. That began to change during the second half of the 20th century. After its catastrophic defeat in World War II, Japan quickly became a major player on the global economic stage…. Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. For most of its history, the island nation of Japan has remained culturally isolated from the rest of the world. That began to change during the second half of the 20th century. After its catastrophic defeat in World War II, Japan quickly became a major player on the global economic stage…. Read more »
