The creator of the cartoon, “Peanuts,” featuring the hapless Charlie Brown, observed that “happiness is a warm puppy.” Who can’t feel a certain kind of pleasure when they hold a wiggly pup? But it is a passing kind of happy,… Continue reading

Few things equal the pleasure of just laughing out loud. When I get together with old friends and the stories start, so does the laughter. Our dumb choices, our silly kid tricks, our shared bumps and bruises are fertile soil… Continue reading

I did not live through the Great Depression of the 1930’s but the stories I read of massive unemployment, of poverty, of hunger are frightening! What hopelessness filled the land at that time. My parents were children during the Second… Continue reading

Our church is going to employ a person on the Pastoral staff. We advertised the position and received dozens of applications. Trying to discern who a person is by reading words on a page is no easy task. The standard… Continue reading

  This planet can be a big, lonely place.  It is not uncommon to awaken in the morning and wonder if any really cares about us, or if we are just a cog in the machine. Things happen that make… Continue reading

There is a story about catching monkeys using a coconut. Heard it?  A hole is cut in the side of the coconut which is then hollowed out. Food is placed inside and the coconut is then left where a monkey… Continue reading

While riding with a friend last week we were treated to a double rainbow after a rainstorm. I joked, “It must be a sign. What is God saying to us?”  Then, just as quickly, laughing I said, “Sure, it is… Continue reading

Occasionally I receive notes from people thanking me for helping them find their way. They usually go something like this – “Your teaching has changed me. I value the example I see in you.”  I am encouraged by notes like that.… Continue reading

  A beautiful young woman in the prime of her life was murdered by a predator, her death brutal and ugly. To that horrible man, she was not a person, she was a ‘thing’ to be used and discarded in… Continue reading

No question about it… life can be disappointing, down right heart-breaking.  Life’s moments include the trivial irritants like broken appliances and the crushing blows of death. Some people become joyless, cynical – even hateful – creatures who spread darkness. Others… Continue reading