"Endurance is nobler than strength, and patience than beauty." So says the 19th century writer and art critic John Ruskin. But is he right? Well, I think so, as long as all those important words are defined properly!
But what if there was a way to understand WHY we should endure? Frankly, most people give up…
I've always been fascinated by philosophy and logical argument constructs. It seems to me that the ability to use one's intellect to worship God through excellence and discipline is a very great accomplishment, one I've always lacked the patience and strength to fully embrace. One particular part of philosophical argument that grabs my attention is…
It almost sounds like the beginning of a joke: "A Soldier, an Athlete, and a Farmer..." But what it really is is a prescription for living a wise life.
All too often we fall into the trap of reducing life to being "right" or "wrong." We want to be correct. We want to be strong.…
The Holy Spirit is a subject that I thought I knew a lot about in my early days as a Pentecostal preacher. I would preach sermons on the Holy Spirit and the power He was to give believers to be "holy" or to "do His work" or to "heal" sicknesses." And all of this was…
"Salt makes people thirsty. People are thirsting for more of God's word. We are the salt, the salt of the earth!" I remember hearing that song as a teenager and thinking "so THAT'S what that means!"
Jesus did call we Christians the "salt of the earth" and in His days on earth, salt wasn't just something…
"MINE!" The toddler was adamant that that toy belonged ONLY to her! She had no intentions of allowing anyone else to play with her toy! Now that's a familiar situation of any parent of small children or any teacher in kindergarten!
But that's also sometimes the unspoken attitude of too many of us when it comes…
My little brother and I were typical brothers growing up. We would engage in "sibling rivalry" now and again! But we were being raised by a single mother who worked fulltime and cared for us full time as well. One such event when we were a bit older elicited a phrase from my mom to…
It was actually, physically, painful to hear her say those words. I was at the point of both tears and disbelief. You see, we had the opportunity to help some homeless people in our community by participating, as a parish, in a wonderful ministry to homeless families in our county. We are blessed to live…
St. Paul tells us today that "to live is Christ, and to die is gain." I confess, every time I read this passage and contemplate this phrase, it always drives me to reconsider my own life. Can I really say this along with Paul?
Of course, the answer is "no," but before I let myself…
The headlines read like a series of horror stories to many. Mass shootings and infectious diseases break out and we wonder about our own health and safety. War rages in the Middle East and radical Islamic groups are ethnically cleansing the Christians and other minority groups, even killing children because "they may grow up and…