The voice of James Earl Jones — as Terrance Mann in The Field of Dreams — touches a nerve of spirit for millions of baseball fans. Since 1989 the words nearly have become sacred: “The one constant through all the…
Lessons in hate and hopelessness
One of the compelling parts of the story telling of the TV series “The Chosen” is the reverent sharing of back stories that could have tied these scriptural people together. One of the best has emerged in Season 2, episode…
Finding our way out of the rubble
Lent isn’t over just yet, and we could do with a bit more reflection and repentance as a church and a nation. But spring is arriving. I can see it dawning over the horizon, pinkish yellow as it seeps into…
Why I wrote about hope in disarray
Three years ago, when I first started to write Hope in Disarray, the world was a very different place. It seems that the world back then was churning through time at rapid speed, unaware and untroubled by the destined forces…
The thing with feathers
I put up my 4-foot Christmas tree a few days ago. It took about 15 minutes from box to display. I slid one skinny pole into the other, draped two or three boxes of ornaments over the stiff branches and…
When it rains, remember the Disney Rules
Today, we loaded up our little circus and took a drive. The kids had a school holiday, and we planned a little fun out of the house. Didn’t matter that the weather forecast screamed “stay home” or that the clouds…
What I learned from RBG about the ‘dissenter’s hope’
As a funeral director, I sit across from families trying to process their grief. Just about any funeral director you’ll meet will tell you that no two families are exactly alike. Some families really open up, and their faces light…
In times like these: Love of hope and hope of love
Does hope mean anything anymore? What is the point of hope in this season? I’ve asked myself those questions, along with many, many others in the preceding months and today. I look at the mess we’ve made of the United…
On building, planting and faithful questions in a time of exile
“Build houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat what they produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there…