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…
Religious communities can offer more to the coronavirus vaccination effort
As religious leaders of different traditions pose while receiving their initial injections of the coronavirus vaccine and even livestream their jab for congregants to see, I can’t help but think that we could do even more. Of course, talking positively…
10 prayers for 2021 (if we survive January)
My favorite meme of the new year: “I’d like to cancel my subscription to 2021. I’ve experienced the free seven-day trial, and I’m not interested.” As post-holiday COVID-19 deaths surged the first week of January, a sitting president incited a…
Bonhoeffer Moment No. 5: Finding a ‘will for the future’
Reflecting on the long-term impact of the Bubonic Plague (1346-1353) sweeping across Europe and ravaging his native Florence, the poet Petrarch wrote: “O happy posterity, who will not experience such abysmal woe and will look upon our testimony as a…
Focus on ‘we’ rather than ‘me’ when praying, professor counsels
Although Rick Landon never has taught English grammar, he has urged students to choose their pronouns carefully. Paying attention to pronouns while praying is one way to start nurturing a closer relationship with God, said Landon, who recently retired as…
My cancer journey: ‘May the peace of God swaddle your world’
In her poem “The Fourth Sign of the Zodiac,” Mary Oliver observes that the fox and the snake move silently in the woods. And then she asks why we should be surprised that cancer could silently enter the forest of…
Three suggestions for Christians preparing to vote
There are record numbers of people voting in the 2020 election, so far. This is a good thing. However, for some, there is a temptation to walk away from it all. We seem to live in an anger-filled, 24-hour-a-day, 365-days-a-year…
How does prayer work? I don’t know, yet I believe
“I’m praying for you.” I’m interested in these words, what they say and what they mean — to the sender and the receiver — and I’m curious about how easy this is for some people to say, and how difficult…
An October prayer
Note: This is not a simulation. This is exactly the state of my prayer life right now. “It feels like a bill has come due and God is collecting.” —White House source to Joe Scarborough, Twitter, 8:38 a.m. October 7,…