To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Once again this year, our Christmas tree is overloaded with ornaments that our kids made when they barely knew how to use scissors or color within the lines. I’m pretty sure that our grown-up children, who are now in their 30s and 40s, could do a whole lot better. Does that mean we should… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here During the month of November we’re taking a look at 21 essential activities of the Holy Spirit, who represents God’s presence in and through every follower of Jesus. All her life, Carly Simon has battled the Beast. The Beast is her name for the all-consuming sense of Not-Good-Enoughness that has plagued her from… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Just 69 days into his presidency, Ronald Reagan was nearly killed by an assassin’s bullet. The outcome of that event, interestingly, is that the 70-year-old Reagan, while at his weakest, took on an aura of formidable strength, even while one of his “strongest” cabinet members appeared to falter before the watching world. On March… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. Dear God: Thanks for nothing. Before you conclude that this must be the winner of the Worst Prayer Ever Contest, consider the possibility that nothing is sometimes really something. Thanking God for nothing can be a prayer of profound gratitude. Thanks, Lord, that nothing happened to me while driving this past week. Thanks that nothing prevented… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. Ron Popeil has almost certainly made an impact on your life, even if you don’t recognize his name or face. Popeil, who died two years ago at the age of 86, was the founder of Ronco, the company which gave birth to the Veg-O-Matic and dozens of other novelty inventions. In the 50s and… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. Say a prayer and do your job. Those were the two things on Captain David Cronin’s mind as he tried to steer a seriously damaged Boeing 747 toward an emergency landing. On February 24, 1989, United Airlines Flight 811 departed Honolulu on its way to New Zealand. When the jumbo jet… Read more »
You received this email because 51 years ago Ray Tomlinson spent a few hours messing around. Tomlinson was a computer programmer working with ARPANET, the predecessor to the Internet. In 1971 a whopping 15 computers had been linked to each other. Ray thought it might be useful one day to send messages between computers. The trick was to figure out a way… Read more »
Throughout the month of August, we’re taking a close look at 23 verses of the New Testament. They comprise Ephesians chapter one, which paints one of the Bible’s most comprehensive pictures of what it means for ordinary people to be “in Christ.” I grew up in a church populated by stained-glass saints. Our sanctuary windows featured dozens of them — monumental, brightly… Read more »
It matters when we see someone’s face. A few years ago, Jonathan Turner, an Israeli physician, conducted a fascinating experiment. With their consent, he took photos of 300 men and women who were coming in for CT scans. He attached the photos to their images that were then submitted to radiologists. The radiologists – who knew nothing of Turner’s plan –… Read more »
On March 4, 1865, Abraham Lincoln stood against the backdrop of the U.S. Capitol and presented his Second Inaugural Address. Less than five weeks later, the core goals of his presidency – the surrender of the primary Confederate forces and thus the preservation of the Union – would finally be accomplished. The expectation of those victories buoyed the nation’s capital. If… Read more »
