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Kansas City, the city I called home for four years, made headlines this week because of a tragedy. Ralph Yarl, a 16-year-old boy, was sent to pick up his younger brothers from a friend’s house. He mistakenly rang the doorbell at Northeast 115th Stree…
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There is a new kind of cosmetic surgery attracting interest. It’s cheaper than a facelift or tummy tuck, and it’s painless. Calligraphers are offering to help people reinvent themselves through a new personal signature. For around $100, these artists…
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When my daughter was a preschooler, she loved the book Wacky Wednesday. We’d read it every day, multiple times a day. Even now, seven years later, I can recite it to you. “It all began with that shoe on the wall. . .” My daughter knew every word yet…
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Two weeks ago, I happened to be hanging out with our high school youth during their usual Sunday evening gathering. It was “Ask the Pastor” night, where teenagers were invited to ask us any question they might have related to faith, theology, the bib…
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The English language is spoken by more than 1.5 billion people worldwide. It is the official first language of 67 different countries and the second language of hundreds of others. English dominates the business world, global politics, and internatio…
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The Ig Nobel Prize is a satiric prize offered annually since 1991, a pun on the actual Nobel Prize awarded in Sweden every year. The ignoble nature of these actual prizes aims to honor unusual achievements that “first make people laugh, and then make…
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All pastors have had a “first year,” and some of the lessons and experiences in that first year will likely make up the initial core snowball that will eventually roll into a large circular mound of snow 25 years later. One lesson or somewhat common…
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A recent news story reported research on a relatively new artificial sweetener. It gave the results of the study, but a majority of the story quoted the scientists on another point. They cautioned readers about how much they still don’t know about th…
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I love to try and wrap my head around things I don’t understand, to learn something about all that I don’t know. Usually this journey is rewarding; sometimes it’s fruitless, though, leaving little more than an empty feeling. Case in point: vandalism….
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With people around the world, I have been reading and listening to news stories about last week’s earthquake in Syria and Turkey. I’ve been struck by images of entire blocks and cities destroyed, more than 35,000 people dead, and scores of others inj…
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When is the last time you might say you were in awe of something? Can you think of the last experience or situation that caused you to utter the word “wow”? Maybe it was when you looked outside your window this morning to see a fresh coat of white sn…
Attempts and desires to predict the future are likely as ancient as the human brain itself. Wonderings or anxieties about potential good or bad fortunes heading our way arouse within us a desire to know now what will happen tomorrow, next week, or te…