To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. It was hands-down the most memorable Easter gift I have ever received. One year, when my two brothers and I were in grade school, Mom didn’t settle for colored eggs and chocolate bunnies. Just for fun she bought each of us a live baby chick. Older brother Scott named his Khruschev, the Soviet dictator… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. If you do what is best for yourself, the entire community will benefit. According to the 18th century British economist Adam Smith, that’s one of the pillars of a healthy capitalist economy. Smith’s magnum opus, The Wealth of Nations, was published in 1776 – the same year that the American colonies declared their… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. Yes, Presbyterians (who occasionally refer to themselves as God’s Frozen Chosen) actually do show emotion from time to time. In his book Jesus Outside the Lines, Scott Sauls recalls the time when theologian R.C. Sproul was the guest presenter at Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville. Sproul was famous for his fierce… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. Bob Ebeling was tormented by guilt for 30 years. Ebeling was an engineer for Morton Thiokol, the contractor that built the solid rocket boosters for NASA’s space shuttles. On the night of January 27, 1986, Ebeling contacted Allan McDonald, Morton Thiokol’s senior leader at Cape Canaveral, where the shuttle Challenger was scheduled for launch… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. Many years ago, when one of our kids came into the world, we received a framed verse of Scripture to hang in the baby’s room. It read, “The Lord looks down from heaven on the children…” (Psalm 14:2) I thought that was lovely. I also thought it was strange that I had never really… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. “Impossible” is a relative term. Sometimes, things we identify as impossible turn out to be quite possible after all. Over the past 27 years, Tom Cruise’s cinematic hero Ethan Hunt has undertaken six “impossible missions” and somehow succeeded every time. Next month he’ll star in the seventh installment of the action series – a… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. It’s not easy being a lost sheep. In one of his most famous stories (Luke 15:4-7), Jesus helps us imagine what it might be like to be a shepherd. “Suppose one of you has 100 sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the 99 in the open country… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. In the movies, when one gentleman offends or insults another, they immediately “throw down.” I challenge you to a duel! And just like that, out come the swords or pistols or some other means of settling things, usually with fatal consequences. But that’s not how dueling happened in real life. According to historian Scott… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. When Southern states began agitating in 1861 to leave the Union and form the Confederate States of America, not everyone was enthusiastic. Every county in the state of Tennessee, for example, was required to vote separately on this crucial issue. In Scott County, located in the northeastern part of the state,… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. Have you ever wondered what’s happening inside those gray canisters hanging near the tops of utility poles? Those are transformers – not to be confused with Autobots and Decepticons, the shape-shifting robots who used to be mere toys but now wage war in exceedingly loud movies. A transformer is a specialized device that converts… Read more »
