Tag Archives: love

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 foundation of the cosmos. Six words […]

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 were endless and everlasting. Human concepts […]

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 sense of self adrift. The world […]

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 the owner of all life). My […]

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 in their footsteps. As a child […]

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 become lost in a despair of […]

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 my friends never realized; their lives […]

The Dance of Deception that Deceives Our Hearts

We all want to believe that by and large we’re a good person. Maybe; but probably not as good as we believe. It’s not that humans are bad per se, but it’s more nuanced. Humans, like all of creation, are pronounced good by God. Every person conceived in love and custom-made to love. Love that’s […]

The Heart of Love and the Soul of Life is Relational

There have been millions of words written and thousands of pictures painted that try to capture the essential essence of the human experience. Often these themes highlight our passions, such as adoration and abhorrence, greed and generosity, and death and deliverance. And yet, every book and painting remains outside of ourselves regardless of its impact […]

The Myth of Understanding Reality as Paradox

At fifty-nine, I know I’m blessed to have the gift of time and the means necessary to allow me to pursue my heart’s passions as opposed to my past profession. This allows me to think a lot about whatever this is. This being life or awareness of this reality; whatever that means. This or that […]