Balloons? Streamers? Chocolate?

Balloons? Streamers? Chocolate?

Asking any sports fan about his/her favorite team, you would hear more stats than were of the thinnest interest, each player’s plays, their strengths, their scoring totals .  .  . But, do they know these athletes? They’ve likely never met, but there’s a...
When A Friend Listens

When A Friend Listens

What comes to mind when you hear someone say they’re a Spiritual Director? Some think of a Christian Counselor. Others recoil at the title, thinking of earlier experiences with the ‘Shepherding Movement’ that tarnished the church in the 20th century. For others, the...
1+2+3 = not enough yet

1+2+3 = not enough yet

Three blind mice explore an elephant: One, on the elephant’s ear, described the animal as being floppy, like a sheet swaying in the wind, sometimes gently, sometimes with great violence. A second, exploring the trunk, described the elephant as a great long tube,...
With red, heart-shaped boxes?

With red, heart-shaped boxes?

According to the National Retail Federation, you and I spent $25,800,000,000 (yes, that is supposed to be billions!) on recent Valentine’s Day purchases: greetings cards #1, then candy, #2, then flowers, #3. When I visited the card shop looking for that perfect...
As the Spirit Moves

As the Spirit Moves

Around 700 BC, a young Jewish man sees a vision which radically alters the course of his life from that moment and for the next 60 years. Here’s his account of it: “In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Master sitting on a throne – high, exalted! – and the train of...
We can do this

We can do this

We are, indeed, a peculiar people. We take smug, devilish delight in creating stereotypes of all sorts of persons in positions of authority, typically casting them in gloom, if not some level of horror: the Boss, always demanding, but with a condescending smile; the...