Most people want to believe the best of themselves. We have an idealized image of ourselves in our brain, and sometimes this "image" is so different from the reality that it is actually a danger to our spiritual maturity. But the struggle to embrace reality is filled with difficulties and dead ends. We were meant…
My grandmother use to say "Your actions are so loud I can't hear what you are saying." When I was small, I didn't understand what she was trying to teach me, but as I got older I began to realize that she was trying to tell me that my actions were a more trustworthy insight…
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On Tuesday, October 19, and Tuesday, October 26 I was honored to be the featured speaker at St. Innocent Orthodox Church in Macon, GA. Annually they have speakers come and speak on a topic that is open to the public and advertised heavily in the area. The parish has a meal and then offers church…
I’m not a big, outdoorsy, guy. So, camping out was never something I really enjoyed, except for this one time. Me and my best friend, Mark, had a great “fort” in the woods near our apartment complex in Orlando when I was about 11 or 12. Being central Florida, the pine trees in these woods…
What if every time you turn around, no matter what happens, it ends up helping you? It seemed like it was one of those days. All the traffic lights were green. Even the cars in front of me were moving along at a good speed. My favorite song came on the radio in just enough…
At a recent spiritual retreat, I was asked to conduct, I was asked how one should prepare to deal with questions about the faith when others ask about it. Usually, many of our Orthodox brothers and sisters get very nervous when somebody asks them about our Orthodox Faith.
It’s a good question, but it points to a deeper…
"You sure are sure of yourself." She said it like it was a bad thing to be confident and act on that confidence. And it really confused me, until a wiser man pulled me off to the side and told me that confident people make people who lack confidence nervous. Sometimes that's understandable, but sometimes…
Several years ago there was a song that was popular on Christian radio stations that still strikes me as a powerful reminder of a central truth: People Need the Lord.
"Every day they pass me by, I can see it in their eyes. Empty people filled with care. Headed who knows where. On they go through…
"The enemy of my enemy is my friend." The quote has been described as an Arabic proverb, but more likely it comes from advice given in India by a leader who died under mysterious circumstances.
This attitude that my enemy's enemy is my ally has been used countless times in politics and warfare to justify the…
