“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...

  Setbacks? Oof. We have all had them. Each of us has also had to figure out how to get along with much less than we did before. And sometimes, no matter who we are, it’s just hard to get motivated to move forward. This is all true for our...

This past Father’s Day was easy breezy for some. It was hard (and perhaps messy) for others. No matter how you feel about Father’s Day 2022, we can—and should—move forward from this past Sunday with this understanding: Father’s Day is far bigger and far better than time on the course,...

  You know where your wallet is (unless you’ve recently misplaced it). The ketchup is on the refrigerator door on the shelf where you keep the mustard, relish, salsa and the salad dressing. You shop at this grocery store when in this town, that grocery store when you’re in another....

As we begin the month of June, we can all say, “Hello summer.” What better way to celebrate summer than with a great-tasting treat like ice cream? Many of you agree to this because the parking areas around our local ice cream stands are full. We come to these places...

   It’s a song Christians learn as children. Its lyrics are simple yet profound. “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world. They are yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world.” Did the 18-year-old white gunman...

It’s outrageous—or perhaps unkind—to suggest that from death comes life, especially when loss is new, unexpected, or overwhelming. Yet this is what I experience. This is what you experience (or can experience), too. The following story supports this. In Acts 9, we meet Tabitha, a believer who serves her community...

  The metaphor “Life is a highway” is fitting. We are, indeed, on a journey. The 1991 song “Life is a highway” by Canadian-born Tom Cochrane, covered in 2006 by country music artists Rascal Flatts, captures the road we are on as meaningful. As the song suggests, we are on...

  Feels good to have the power back on, doesn’t it? Your elation may be different than the one I’m about to share, but this scene in front of our family refrigerator may help you remember the joy you experienced when power returned after the April 19th heavyweight snowstorm wreaked...

  News of the war in the Ukraine shatters us, especially when we hear of war crimes against civilians. We have made it through the pandemic (mostly?). Inflation can bring too many of us our knees, particularly at the gas pump. Medical advances are great, but there’s still cancer. This...