“Thank the Lord!” I exclaimed, as I reached over and knocked on a wood table.  I was joking, not about being thankful, but about the old superstition of knocking on wood. Some think that the practice goes back to the… Continue reading

The Messenger app on my phone buzzed around 7 pm and a picture of a car appeared, upside down, airbags deployed. Recognizing it as belonging to one of my kids. My heart skipped a beat, and I hurried to read… Continue reading

Gerard Baker writes in the Wall Street Journal about the perspectives that keep Americans yelling at each other across deep divides. “In our hyperpartisan, post-truth, fit-any-fact-to-your-narrative world, everything is a Rorschach test. Trump partisans can behold an election result they… Continue reading

We tend to be impressed by those things and places that can claim to be the ‘world’s greatest.’  There’s a book for that, the Guinness Book of World Records. In 1951, Hugh Beaver, managing director of the Guinness Breweries, went… Continue reading

Everyone is subject to making “knee jerk” reactions in life. The idiom refers to the reflex of a normal person when a physician taps the tendon in the knee with a little rubber hammer. The lower leg moves in response… Continue reading

The text read, “Please call me.”  I looked at the name and knew it would not be good news. It wasn’t. A friend who had been critically ill with COVID, for whom I had prayed for days, had stepped into… Continue reading

Sam, my old Irish Setter, is a gentle dog who loves people, but if she feels that she is being cornered or pressured a deep growl rumbles from her throat and her lips curl back to reveal some vicious looking… Continue reading

One of the long-term effects of this pandemic will be the impact on human relationships. While daily infection numbers and death rates capture our attention there is a secondary effect that is taking a hidden but heavy toll on people:… Continue reading

The new pastor was being formally commissioned with beautifully prepared worship that included lessons on pastoral care as well as instructions to the congregation about their response to their shepherd. The most beautiful part of the service was a dance! … Continue reading

A younger friend, who is a pastor, recently announced his next sermon series title – “Life Sucks.” When I read it, I laughed, amused by his summary of Ecclesiastes, that book in the Bible from which he will be taking… Continue reading