Once upon a time, there was a farmer with two teenagers at home. He asked both of them to help out with the day’s farm work. One of them responded, Sure thing, Dad. I’ll get to it right after breakfast. The other told his father, I’m really busy. Find someone else. At the end of …
Read more “Do I need to believe in God to be a good person?”
…Any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. – Luke 14:33 As many Christians react to the emotionally tone-deaf excesses of fundamentalism, some of us have come to believe that we should “not take the Bible literally.” When I hear folks say this, I generally think I …
My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing. – James 1:2-4 There is a simple lesson that I …
I am not an extreme early-adopter of new technology. I tend to wait until some of my other friends start using a new invention before I jump on the bandwagon. There is a certain tipping point, however, when several of my early-adopter friends are using a service, that it makes sense for me to join …
Reality, in fact, is usually something you could not have guessed. That is one of the reasons I believe Christianity. It is a religion you could not have guessed. If it offered us just the kind of universe we had always expected, I should feel we were making it up. But, in fact, it is …
The days are growing very short now, as we get closer to Christmas. The day that Christians celebrate the birth of our Savior is nearly the shortest day of the year for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere. We choose the darkest day to remember how the True Light came into the world to …
I have been gaining great inspiration and insight recently from reading a biography of Mary Teresa of Calcutta. In her letters, Mary Teresa writes with profound intensity and a singularity of gospel commitment. At the same time, she demonstrates incredible humility and self-denial. Teresa is an inspiration to me for the way in which she …