I stopped outside the door at my favorite hangout, Bubba-Doo’s, to hold it open for an acquaintance. I knew Landrum from his occasional visits there to the country store. He showed up some afternoons and very rarely said much. In…
It is well with my soul? How Mel Gibson and toilet paper helped rescue my appreciation of a hymn
I knew there would come a day when I couldn’t sing it. As a kid, I loved the majesty of the hymn It is Well with My Soul. As life’s harsher realities set in, however, I came to hate it….
Gifts of hospitality in the midst of grief
I’ve known two fundamental truths about myself since I was little: I am adopted, and I am Latina. A birth heritage of Mexican descent always has felt like an important piece of who I am. I was adopted at birth…
COVID, Holy Week and God’s consolations
I lost a friend I highly respected to COVID. Our church family has prayed through the illnesses of members, friends and family, observed deaths and then, of course, there were the illnesses and losses due to complications of COVID never…
Easter is for those who have been to the cemetery
Next Sunday, people in the United States will wish Easter felt like it did three years ago. They will put on new shoes and wonder if they should have gotten a half size larger. They will consider going out for…
A thief strikes Bubba-Doo’s
Have you ever walked into a place, read the room and known instantly that something was off? A stop by my favorite old country store the other day was one of those times. I stepped through the door and could…
Pastor’s wife felt the prompt of the Spirit, now she’s the First Lady’s prayer partner
In 2020, Robin Jackson took a leap of faith that has changed her schedule every Wednesday since. During the presidential campaign, then-candidate Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, attended Brookland Baptist Church of West Columbia, S.C., where Jackson’s husband, Charles,…
On this date 85 years ago, the worst school tragedy in American history occurred
On Thursday afternoon, March 18, 1937, in the Texas oil boom town of New London, 694 students and 40 teachers awaited the dismissal bell and the start of a special three-day weekend. Then at 3:17 p.m., just 13 minutes before…
A pediatric chaplain offers five tips for talking with children about death and loss
Beneath the intensity of the fluorescent lights, the pediatric intensive care unit felt even more garish at 3 a.m. as I stood in the hallway with a patient’s dad who was tearful and afraid. His daughter’s nurse had called me…