Weekly Reflections
A brief pause each week to consider what matters, what lingers, and what’s worth remembering.
These stories are available on audio through Substack.
Resisting the Urge to Repay Evil for Evil
Scripture is wise and beautiful and manna for the soul; and all of it crescendos into a unified eternal truism. Love God and love your neighbor. Six words to guide and counsel humanity; the children of God. Six words that define and describe the essence of life; the very [...]
17
Oct
Oct
How Firm is Your Foundation?
A week into my sixtieth year and my mind has multiplied with a million memories. Cerebral photographs of people and places that remind me of world’s that no longer exist. The world I grew into; and the world I tied my sense of self too. Human creations I believed [...]
10
Oct
Oct
Grace and Brokenness at Sixty
Today marks my sixtieth birthday and I’m feeling loss and lost; love and loveliness. My life floating and fluctuating in unfamiliar and unexplored seas. For the majority of my life, I knew my purpose. Perform in school, persevere at work and plan for retirement. My societal service accomplished; my [...]
30
Sep
Sep
What My Parents Wanted for Their Children (It Wasn’t the American Dream)
The only people that really know our young lives are our parents. Whatever vague recollections I have from my early earthly days cannot compete with the vibrant remembrances my parents vividly recall. They know more about my early life even if I am the original owner (actually God is [...]
19
Sep
Sep
Who Does Your Heart Belong Too?
This existential heading may seem like a strange question to ask of anyone who has been birthed and bathed in the modern world of emancipation, liberation and an insatiable individualism; but it’s THE question every human has hopefully examined even in an otherwise unexamined life. It’s the same question [...]
12
Sep
Sep
Forty Years in the Wilderness: My Return to Church
Like every well-versed Sunday schooler, I learned about Moses and the fickle faith of God’s chosen people. Even after miracle after miracle, they still did not trust in God. Consequently, they wandered for forty years in the wilderness. A story I thought I faithfully comprehended, until I foolishly followed [...]
22
Aug
Aug
When I Realized My Career Added Nothing to the World
The most problematic person to be honest with is primarily ourselves. Particularly when we align our sense of self-worth to what we do for our daily bread. What we do for a “living” is often the first question we are asked by strangers and acquaintances. It’s how this culture [...]
08
Aug
Aug
Understanding Scripture as Sacred Sagacity not a Regimen of Rules
How we understand the world is how we understand ourselves, others and our faith; and yes, we all have a faith, even the most ardent atheist or apathetic agnostic. Every human needs purpose and perseverance to prevent a life of pointlessness. When we lack meaning in our lives we [...]
01
Aug
Aug
For My Friends Whose Journey Ended Far too Soon
As summer signals its send-off and autumn announces its arrival, the earthly equipment we employ to measure time will mark the conclusion of my sixtieth year in this here and now. A birthday milestone I could never even imagine thirty years ago. A birthday marker that too many of [...]
25
Jul
Jul
Learning to Pursue Love not the World’s Approval
I live in a culture that deifies what our senses can see while disparaging what our senses cannot see. I live in a culture that devours generosity to satiate our vociferous appetite for self while discounting a sense of shared community. I live in a culture that diminishes kindness [...]
18
Jul
Jul
The Digital Amplification of Mental Illness
We live in a world that even our most foresighted futuristic forefathers could never imagine. Cold water flows into our homes with the turn of a faucet. Hot showers are available on demand. We press buttons on a machine to cool us in the summer and warm us in [...]
11
Jul
Jul
When the Myth Dies: A July 4th Reflection
Fifty years ago, as our nation celebrated its bicentennial, a shy skinny suburban fourth grader summoned the courage to step out from among his classmates. Performing his impersonation of James Cagney as he spun, shook and slid across a soulless gymnasium floor. His classmates in support of his stage [...]
27
Jun
Jun