Seeing in the Dark

How did you come to believe in God?  As you look back over the course of your life, were there unique experiences or events that shaped your faith and understanding of God? In my particular line of work, I tend to hear a lot of “conversion” stories from people.   Some...

The Gospel According to Bud

You need to get out more.  Serving others not only transforms the community, but it transforms your own life in very real ways.  By getting out and sharing yourself with others whom you might otherwise never meet, your own heart and mind are stretched in new ways,...

No Longer Strangers

One of my favorite Robert Frost poems, “Mending Wall,” tells of two neighbors who meet one day in the springtime at the stone wall that separates their two farms. As they walk along the wall together, each on their own side, they replace the stones that had fallen...

Strength in Weakness

I remember, as a teenager, being invited to a friend’s church for a special “crusade” one evening.  A group of Christian body builders, known as the Power Team, had rolled into town.  They had come to flash their chiseled forearms, flex their six-pack abs, pull...

Out of Your Mind

According to the Gospel of Mark, when Jesus came home for the first time after visiting John the Baptist in the wilderness, his family and friends thought he had lost his mind.  “He’s gone crazy,” they said of Jesus.  In the Greek, the word is existemi, which means...