You’re history   It may have been some time since you’ve heard the word, “Groovy.” “Nifty” and “Swell” are dated as well. “Hot diggity dog,” is an exclamation that may never come back. There’s one I want to talk about. “You’re history.” This means you are yesterday’s news. As Harford...

  I imagine some wanted to avoid this past Sunday, September 11. Then I think ‘avoid’ may not the right word. Deny may be more accurate. Denial is one of the five phases of grief. The other four are bargaining, anger, depression, and acceptance. I speak of denial if you...

      I did a thing. You may have done the same thing. You prayed, “God, let me be your servant.” This is a whopper prayer. Open-ended. Never quite knowing where or how this will lead. Maybe it was a one-time prayer. Maybe you’ve prayed it again. And again....

    Sarah Brown was a thundering big girl with kind brown eyes, big feet, and a gentle, loving heart. She loved many, many things including lawn duty and nighttime guard duty (she chose these assignments all on her own). Sarah died suddenly and tragically in mid-June. This humane society...

The story of Bartimaeus is our story. When we cannot see past our problem until we spend time with Jesus, we stand where Bartimaeus stood. We meet Bartimaeus in all three synoptic gospels—Matthew, Mark and Luke. These three authors essentially share the same story. Only Mark shares his name. Matthew...

    We have prayed the following prayers. Let the child with cancer live. Let the altruistic saint who lives down the street continue her non-profit ministry unscathed. Let the war-torn nation (or neighborhood) live in peace. It is far beyond painful when these prayers don’t actualize. Since you began...

  Life hurts. Loss lingers. Fear speaks. During these times, each of us has prayed, “Help me!” Whether we locate ourselves as believers in God or not believers in God (or somewhere in between), we have all prayed for help in the a nearly silent sigh or at the top...

  Testing Jesus? What? Never! Deuteronomy 6:16 makes this clear: we are not to put the Lord, our God, to the test. Then this past Sunday’s sermon rolled along. Now I think differently. I raised then what I raise now. What if we do test Jesus, or at least we...

    There is no victory when someone loses. Some have lost. I have clergy colleagues who publicly identify as being either left or right. They preach left or right as if their personal location is something they have a right to use from the pulpit. You may be fine...

  “Where is heaven?” my theological 9-year-old asks. I give the seminary answer. I abbreviate it, but share the thoughts of some renowned philosophers and theologians have offered through the ages. I land (pun intended) with Paul Tillich, a 20th century theologian who suggests that God is the ground of...