My friend, Elise, and I like to say that we are hooked on service. Before seminary we both did a great deal of volunteer work within our home communities and churches. When we went to India for a seminary class, we chose to stay an extra week and vol…
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These Wednesdays in Lent, we gather twice as a congregation. Coming together mid-day and again in the evening, we pray, praise, and contemplate how God may work in our world. These midweek services remind of me of the Christian tradition of praying t…
These days, a trip to the grocery store can be an exhausting experience. Nevermind having to navigate the crowded aisles with the one cart that always has a squeaky wheel or waiting in line as an employee runs to the very back of the store for a pric…
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Maybe it’s fitting that the early primary season falls during Lent. Maybe it’s exactly appropriate for so much hand-wringing over who might end up as the next president of the United States to occur at just the same time that we seek to recenter our…
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It was a pretty quiet morning at the gym today. As I laced up my tennis shoes, I found myself looking around wondering where all the people went. It seems just a month or so ago, I was scouring the room to find an open treadmill and waiting my turn t…
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My high school did not offer a class in cosmology. It’s a good thing it didn’t. I wouldn’t have survived. I barely passed math, struggled in physics, and to this day do not understand what a mole in chemistry is. The only mole I know is the one that…
It’s a big week. Yesterday was Ash Wednesday – this important day in the Christian calendar that begins the season of Lent. It’s a day we remember our mortality and the ways we continually miss the mark on living as God would have us. This week we be…
A Powerball official told this Munford, Tennessee couple that they’d have to be content with an immediate check for a couple million dollars until the lump sum payout can be processed. That processing requires about 10 business days. It’s hard to ima…
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I recently returned from a week with St. Paul people in the Dominican Republic. On the last day there, our trip coordinator, Heather, took us out to a little sandbar just off the coast. The excursion gave us a chance to relax after a week of work, an…
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This week, I was on the phone with my sister pondering the most effective way to work through a formidable to-do list. We all have our to-do lists, things that are important, things that have to get done, and have to get done in the right order. They…
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Most of us probably do not keep our homes in immaculate condition seven days a week. If you’re like me, picking up all of the clutter, recycling junk mail, and having every dish washed and put away isn’t always a priority. It becomes a priority if s…
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Last month, I happened to read an article in the Wall Street Journal detailing the life and work of a cobbler named James Fucile. At 83 years old and with nearly sixty years in the business, James finally decided to retire and close down his shoe rep…