Where the Appalachian region of North Carolina crashes against the central Piedmont’s rolling hills, I came of age. Where the exploitation of workers centered less on what took place in coal mines and instead played out inside the walls and…
It’s a short distance from your Thanksgiving table jokes to queer people being shot dead
Are you alive? My phone began blowing up with texts, emails and messages early Sunday morning. Are you safe? This is not the first time I’ve experienced this. Are your people safe? My body remembers; we’ve been here before. Sunday…
Counting your blessings instead of sheep
“Have you not heard anything I’ve said in the last four weeks!? Just what do I have to be grateful about?” The elderly widower in my grief group was incensed that the fourth session was focused on gratitude. The topic…
When the system is based on comparison, won’t someone always be ‘more blessed’ and ‘less blessed’ than another?
Walking into the room, I saw a 3-year-old with a cast on his leg sitting in his hospital bed surrounded by plush Hulk, Captain America and Spider-Man toys. Sitting next to the bed was a weary-looking mom, who welcomed me…
A heavenly reunion: Imagining my two mothers meeting at a Formica dinette on a cloud
Editor’s note: Lawanna McIver Fields died at her home in Nashville, Tenn., Nov. 5. She was well known in Baptist circles for a number of reasons, among them her role as a lay leader at Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas…
Four reasons saying grace is important
As we enter October, the holiday season is coming up quickly. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas. Most of these holidays entail some sort of celebration that involves food. Even if you are not celebrating a specific holiday, this is the time of…
Tony and Lauren Dungy know something about influence, on the field and at home
The first Black coach to win a Super Bowl title remains a family man as well as a legendary coach. Tony Dungy and his wife, Lauren, are the parents of 11 children — some their biological children and some adopted…
As a pastor, knowing it’s time to move on comes with joy and sorrow
Scanning the last page of my notes, I throw myself into the benediction with the force of a poorly hung door caught unexpectantly by a summer breeze. I attempt to hold the moment by stitching together a series of detached…
You can(’t) go home again
A trip home to be with family in the face of an illness gave an interesting lens to the dynamics of return. Then on the heels of that, the memorial service of a formative ministry figure called the writer also…