One way to think about something is first to ask what it is not and then ask what it is. Today’s passage guides us to follow this method in relation to...

A friend of mine was lamenting her current relationship with her fourteen-year-old daughter. “Any time I disagree with her or tell her she can’t do something, she runs into her room...

The prophet Isaiah casts a glorious vision of a new paradise, a new reality where there is peace, safety, security, health, stability, and well-being. I want to go there! I want...

When I was growing up, I spent my summers on what we called my grandmother’s “farm,” but it was actually her orchard because she had sold off most of her land...

How often do we feel hopeful after checking the news? Natural and human-made disasters, disease and pandemics, wars and the threats of violence, climate change and ecological crises, crime in the...

I once overheard the following from a woman in a restaurant. “I would like the Eggs Benedict, but I don’t really like ham, so if you wouldn’t mind, I think I...

My third-grade Sunday school teacher was a dedicated but scary woman named Miss Hack. She spent most of her time putting the fear of God—instead of the love of God—into her...

The reality of a personal form of bondage came to me a few years ago when aggressive arthritis destroyed both my hips, leaving me on crutches for more than a year...

I’m writing this during the pandemic of 2020. There are plenty of predictions about what is going to happen, but you readers will have a much better perspective on all of...

“We’ve never done it that way.” It’s a threat, or so it feels to many church leaders. Or it’s a warning or an incantation against change of any sort. Some have...