Justice and joy are intertwined, not unlike the link between joy and pain. To love is to suffer, as the mystics remind us. Deeply acquainted with the recesses of the human heart, C. S. Lewis wrote: “Joy is distinct not…
A Christmas to remember
Earlier this week, Amy and I spent a very memorable day back in South Carolina. Over the course of those 24 hours, we experienced joy and celebration; uncertainty and apprehension; followed by relief and profound gratitude. It was the kind…
What do Jimmy Fallon, Ernie Banks and Pope Francis have in common?
By Doyle Sager OK, so maybe we can’t draw straight lines connecting TV celebrity Jimmy Fallon, the late baseball great Ernie Banks and Pope Francis. Perhaps the task will require more looping circles than straight lines. But it occurred to…
Advent as parenthesis
A parenthesis is a break in the flow of a thought, an interval, or a time between two events. We experience many events in life that embody this idea of waiting either in anticipation or in dread. Life transitions are…