To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Just before the 1975 fall semester kicked off at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, the dean was literally on his knees. William Kerr was praying that Andrew Lincoln, a distinguished British Bible Scholar, could somehow be granted a visa to come teach at GCTS. A mountain of red tape stood in the way. All of a… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Here’s a riddle: Fifteen turtles are sunning themselves on an old log. Six of them decide to jump into the water. So how many turtles are still sunning themselves on the log? That’s easy. The correct answer is fifteen. Wait: Didn’t we say that six of them decided to jump into the water? We did. But as leadership gurus Barry… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here What swept the dinosaurs from the face of the Earth? That question has puzzled paleontologists for a very long time. This year marks the 200th anniversary of the arrival of every school child’s favorite critters onto the international stage. In 1824, Oxford geology professor William Buckland declared that a set of fossilized bones… Read more »
Words cannot express what a privilege it has been to be part of your mornings the past twelve months. As in past years, I’m going to step back this week and take a five-day “Sabbath rest.” Morning reflections will return next Tuesday, January 2. Until then, may God bless you as you ponder his gifts of grace during the past year, and the… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Stephanie Fast never learned the date of her birth. To this day she doesn’t know the identity of her parents. She does know that she was the child of a Korean mother and an Anglo father, one of many biracial children left behind in the aftermath of the Korean… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here A Festivus for the rest of us! If your heart isn’t stirred by that passionate cry, and if the aluminum pole pictured here makes no sense, you’re probably not a Seinfeld buff. In December 1997 the sitcom aired what became one of its most famous episodes. Jason Alexander’s character, George Costanza, reveals that… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here If you can believe it, Jingle Bells used to be considered too racy to be connected with December 25. James Lord Pierpont, the Savannah, GA church choir director who composed it in 1857, seems to have had Thanksgiving in mind. He originally named it One Horse Open Sleigh. But after Mrs. Otis Waterman, one… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here A few years ago, an author recounted her experience waiting for a flight in an airport lounge. She got out her newspaper and opened up a small package of cookies she had purchased to fend off hunger. After a few minutes, she heard a rustling sound beside her. She looked from behind her newspaper… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Tennessee Williams’ most famous play, A Streetcar Named Desire, debuted on Broadway in 1947. A journalist who was able to find his way backstage asked one of the performers how he would summarize its plot. The actor replied, “It’s about a guy who comes to take a woman to an insane asylum.” To put it… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here The Hallmark Channel has become Must See TV for Americans who can’t get enough Christmas movies. This fall, the folks at Hallmark began screening holiday movies 11 days before Halloween. We’re not talking about cinematic favorites like Miracle on 34th Street or It’s a Wonderful Life, or that most poignant of all Christmas classics,… Read more »
