The word "asceticism" is something of a mystery to our modern way of life. We have lived with such plenty and such amazing comfort and ease for so long that now we assume that all of life is meant to be pain (and even effort) free. Just consider our attitudes towards marriage. We assume that…
They say Jealousy is the "green eyed monster." What a powerful image! And it comes (as so many of our allusions in English) from Shakespeare. In his play "Othello" Iago warns Othello "O! beware, my lord, of jealousy; it is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on." They say this comes…
They say timing is everything! And, most of my life has proven that this is true. I can't tell you how many times I've either jumped too early or waited too late on actions both small and great (A little poetry for you today!).
And the very concept of time is both a blessing and a…
One of the greatest practical jokes ever played on me was when some friends actually hid my car from me while I was at work. As a teenage boy, my car was my ticket to freedom. It represented my passage from a child to a man! Besides, I looked really cool driving it around the…
Have you ever thought about all those people Jesus healed during His ministry here on earth? They were so happy, grateful, and changed. In some cases (the illness of leprosy) they were now free to rejoin society, be reunited with their families, and finally get their life back. They went on to live their lives.…
"Hate" is such an ugly word. And yet I use it all too often. "I hate this traffic." "I hate coconut!" ( I really don't like coconut. I think it's the texture.) "I hate that music." You get the idea. But, sometimes, dark times, weak times I have even used that word about another person!…
"Uncle" Lawrence owned a farm, and when I was a boy, my brother and I would visit this magical place. It was the first time I'd seen how chickens were raised and eggs gathered and cows milked.
But what fascinated me most was when I saw the mule being yoked to a plow. The animal, use…
Opposite Day was always a fun game to play when I was a kid. We would play "Opposite Day" and laugh out loud as our friends misunderstood what we were trying to tell them. But sometimes, we humans have a serious problem understanding one another because we have the opposite idea in our heads when…
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The act of communication is an amazingly difficult task, because we humans communicate on so many levels: Verbal (obviously), Visual (both in writing and gestures, facial expressions), Auditory, and Sensory. We communicate, intentionally and unintentionally along all these spectrums all the time. And guess what, we still struggle with misunderstanding!
Just think of the multitude of…