As a dad, I hate hearing this from my children “But you promised.” It is both frustrating and, sometimes, embarrassing because I had, in fact, promised and hadn’t followed through! As with most realities in life, it’s complicated. Yes, there are times I’ve said “I promise” and was just saying it to get the kids happy or even put them off. But that mistake builds into my children the terrible notion that…

But Truth is a Person, and that is the key difference in facing suffering from a Christian perspective. Our world is filled with suffering. I was telling a story of my days as a police officer and my struggles (to this day) in dealing with the suffering of children. I was almost suspended from duty one night by my commanding officer when I refused to work a horrific car crash until the…

“But, how does it work?” That was the question burning in my mind as a young, curious, typical pre-teen boy. So, I did what any normal kid would do. I took the clock apart! Still didn’t get my question answered because I didn’t understand the gears and spring system concept, and the clock never worked again because I didn’t know how to put it back together again! Needless to say, Mom wasn’t…

“For pity’s sake,” a phrase I heard my grandmother used and the context was a conversation about a man who just couldn’t seem to stop making trouble for himself. She had tried and tried again to help this man stop abusing himself, but he refused even “for pity’s sake.” But even St. Paul understood this concept when he said “in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves…” in 2 Timothy chapter 2. Some…