At Noon last Friday, I broke into sobs. Deep, heaving, uncontrollable sobs. I’d read the story of how a 28-year old man took a camera, took a gun and then took the lives of 50 people in two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. I’d watched interviews with survivors and a searching mom in shock, …
I’m white. Decidedly white. Which means that I can’t jump, or dance in rhythm, or learn a funky new handshake, to save my life. I grew up in a white bubble I never noticed, and I didn’t have an adult black friend for the first 40 years of my life. I’m still quite white, but …
God is the King of the world, Giver of life, Creator of men and women, Designer of marriage, and Lord of peace Who instructs us in the way of His shalom. So, God, the word on the street is that you want the husband to be head of his wife. Is that true? He …
As the Jussie Smollet story unfolds, there are no winners, only losers. God, in His grace, tried to prevent all of the losses with one short, but monumental instruction: “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.” Don’t lie. But the particular lie God forbids is a public lie: courtroom perjury, a public …
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (The Bible, John 1:14, NIV) I was floored, God, when I got your request to help you move your son into …
The Bible’s Christmas narrative has a villain. An antagonist. A bad guy. And I’m not talking about the innkeeper. The bad guy is King Herod. The good guys are those wise men who traveled weeks to find Jesus. The good guys and the bad guy meet in Matthew, chapter 2: After Jesus was born …
Hi Roger. Please don’t freak out, but I am your 57-year old self, and I’d like to share some things I (we?) have learned about you and the black people around you that you barely notice. The good news here is that you’ll make it to your 57th birthday. The bad news is that you …
I enrolled in my very first college class, Speech 101, in the summer of 1979. Many people dread speaking in public, but I liked it, and I was looking forward to this class. One of our first speech assignments was an informative speech, and I chose “How to bag groceries properly.” (Cute, huh? It …
We were looking forward to a fun night together with our new friends, a pastor and his wife who lived in the town where we’d moved to start a church. We’d visited their church to learn more about the area, I’d chatted with him a bit, and my wife had connected with his wife. …
Thomas Jefferson. Robert E. Lee. Thomas Yawkey. What do those three men have in common? Besides being dead? Well, in 2017, they spent some time in the news. Jefferson, the slave owner. Yawkey, the Red Sox baseball owner who adamantly resisted integration. Lee, a general in the Confederate army. Deceased, their names were resurrected in op …