To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Pastors sometimes get surprising questions. In his book The Good and Beautiful God, James Bryan Smith recounts a story he heard from his friend, Pastor Jeff Gannon. A young woman called Gannon out of the blue and asked, “May I come to your church?” What a question. “Of course,” said Gannon, who was surprised she… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here A few years ago John Gilbert died at the age of 25 at his home in Paradise, California. When he was five years old, John was diagnosed with Duchenne’s Muscular Dystrophy. That meant that during the course of his few years, John had progressively lost more and more of the physical… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Does God seem to have something against Florida this fall? The Sunshine State had only begun to recover from its encounter with Hurricane Helene two weeks ago when another monster cyclone formed in the Gulf of Mexico. Hurricane Milton is ravaging central Florida even as this reflection arrives in your inbox,… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here What’s the most common element in the universe? That’s easy. Not even close. Chemists estimate that 92% of all the atoms in the cosmos are hydrogen – the simplest element on the periodic table, comprised of one proton, one neutron, and one electron. What’s number two? Also a no-brainer. It’s helium,… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here In his book Messy Spirituality, author and pastor Mike Yaconelli recounts the story of a home remodeling project. He and his wife decided to redo the tile in their kitchen. Their house, which was situated in a rugged part of California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains, was more than 60 miles from the… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Denmark has never been considered a center for global cinema. Only a handful of Danish movies, in fact, have ever received an Academy Award. But the first one to accomplish that – Babette’s Feast, winner of the 1987 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film (based on a story by Danish writer… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Some of the most celebrated names in spiritual history are martyrs – men and women who surrendered their lives instead of surrendering their faith. Church tradition suggests that 11 of the original 12 apostles met violent ends. Courageous martyrs also figure prominently in the stories of Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam. In the Middle… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here In the summer of 1995, 26-year-old Cheryl Strayed solo hiked 1,100 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail. The PCT traverses some of America’s most daunting wilderness areas. Cheryl strode from the Mohave Desert through the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the Cascades of the Pacific Northwest. Her adventures are documented in her best-selling memoir Wild:… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. In the world of economics, one word is more powerful than any other. That word is free. In his book Predictably Irrational, economist Dan Ariely points out that “zero is not just another price.” Getting something for nothing is a source of irrational excitement. Things that we would never say we actually need become irresistible because… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. What profession creeps people out more than any other? We don’t need a scientific study to confirm what we already suspect: People are seriously creeped out by clowns. According to the digital news source Vox, more Americans are afraid of clowns than of climate change, terrorism, and even death. A few years ago, Dr. Frank McAndrew,… Read more »
