I once took a fishing trip with a group of friends to the Gulf Coast. In a little town south of New Orleans, one of the top fishing guides in Louisiana was set to take our group out for the day. Now, I need to tell you, my younger brother got all the “outdoorsie” genes in my family! I was always the bookworm. Well, after several hours of watching all my friends…
Ah, summertime! The season of vacations, a more relaxed pace of life, adventures, and warm weather. “In the good old summertime….” Summertime is such a wonderful time of year. But our society is one in which most Americans take little to no vacation time. The drive to produce creates the sense that I always have to be “productive.” A friend of mine recently sent me an article naming the top ways to…
Have you heard this before? “Well, I don’t like going to church because there are so many hypocrites there.” I’ve always found that funny because if you allow hypocrites to keep you from worship, then the hypocrite is closer to God than you are! Kinda defeats the purpose, don’t you think? Words are such powerful icons of who we really are. They reveal and conceal so much about us. This is why…
In the culture I was raised, your mother is the most important person in your life. Oh, don’t get me wrong, dad was just as important, but he was working, and it was mom that had the after-school snack ready for you when you got off the bus in the afternoon! Of course that calls to mind the old saying “The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.” This brings me…
“Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8) Such a familiar passage from St. Paul’s first letter to the…
There seems to be a cottage industry that has developed in America all surrounding the notion that modern life is lonely. It seems this sense of loneliness flows from the notion that we are to be “self sufficient” and not “need” anybody to help us. Of course, there is nothing wrong with being capable of caring for yourself, but, as all good things, this ability can be twisted and made to be…
“You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?” So asks our Lord in Matthew 5:13. Jesus has just given us the gift of the Beatitudes. You know, “Blessed are the poor…” This list of those who are blessed give us a look into the path toward being full of the Spirit and becoming “like Christ.” As I’ve journeyed in my…
I’m writing today from the beautiful 200 acres of the Diakonia Retreat Center in Salem, SC, USA. Our Metropolis of Atlanta begins 5 weeks of summer camp ministry to our youth starting today. As we celebrate the Feast of Pentecost, being with these teens makes it all the more clear why this feast is of such vital importance today. You see, there is nothing more powerful than intimacy with God to reinforce…
You remember the story of the Tower of Babel in the First Testament. If not, refresh your memory by reading about the ambitions of humanity in Genesis 11:1-9. Suffice it to say that a unity of purpose is only as good as the motivation of that purpose! Sunday is the Feast of Pentecost and the fathers call the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost the reversal of the Tower of Babel.…
I remember a time when I had to extend the power of attorney to someone to help me deal with a challenge in another state. The whole purpose of the power of attorney was so this person could act as me in the circumstance to achieve the desired goal. From a legal standpoint that person in the other state was me for a while. So, legally, I was in two places at…
