To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here In 1571, Friar Luis de Leon, a theologian and professor, was brought before the Spanish Inquisition. He was charged with moral corruption and sentenced to prison, where he spent the next four years. His crime? He had dared to translate the Old Testament book of Song of Songs into Spanish. De Leon, in other… 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 today’s reflection as a podcast, click here When the animated film Up arrived in theaters in 2009, audience members expected to be enchanted by Pixar’s movie magic. What they didn’t expect was one of the most poignant depictions of marriage ever seen on the big screen. It lasts four minutes and 21 seconds. No words are spoken. No words need to… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. “I think this is the neatest gift you have ever given me.” My wife spoke those words to me about 25 years ago on Christmas Day. While every husband yearns to hear such praise, what Mary Sue had just unwrapped was a 16-inch blade Stihl chainsaw. She was beaming. Mary Sue grew up loving tools. … Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. It’s that time of year again. The tarantulas are rambling across the deserts of the American Southwest. Brown tarantulas are large, hairy, solitary spiders – about the size of a saucer – that seem perfectly designed to play the starring role in a horror movie. In reality, they are exceedingly gentle. They rarely bite… Read more »
Malcom in the Middle, a sitcom about a comically dysfunctional family, was a smash hit on Fox for seven seasons (2000-2006). Lois, the overbearing mother (played by Jane Kaczmarek) is married to Hal, the emotionally immature but heart’s-in-the-right-place dad (played by Bryan Cranston, whom few people suspected at the time was on his way to becoming a critically acclaimed star). They… Read more »
Throughout July we’re taking an in-depth look at Proverbs, the Bible’s one-of-a-kind book about our never-ending need for wisdom. Odysseus, the hero of Homer’s epic poem Odyssey, had to fight his way past innumerable obstacles to return home after the battle of Troy. One of the most daunting was the Island of the Sirens. Its resident half-bird, half-female creatures were… Read more »
When Tim Keller and his wife Kathy launched a new church in Manhattan a few decades ago, they knew it would be a draining endeavor. Keller, who struggles with work addiction, had discerned that his life would be seriously out of balance for at least the first three years. That meant he would be working at a pace that he… Read more »
