Celebrate the Holidays?
Well, we’re in the middle of the holiday season. The radio is blaring Christmas music, the mall parking lots are slowly filling up, and everyone’s gearing up for a great time, right? Well, not necessarily. As I’ve talked about in the past, holidays can be a tough time for a lot of people who are struggling with grief. Someone sent me this article by Marjorie Kooy who is a counselor for Chicago Christian Counseling Center. She also facilitates a grief support group. → Read more...
Baggage Claim
This week I’ve been thinking about our baggage. Not the Samsonite ones that we carry with us to the airport. Not that kind. I’m talking about the things, ideas, ideals, thoughts, hurts, wounds, emotions, fantasies, and opinions that we all carry with us, sometimes consciously, but usually and oftentimes subconsciously. When you go to the airport and check in your bags to put on the plane, they ask you to put it on a scale to measure the weight of the bag. → Read more...
It’s Not Just You and Me in America
Last week, my attention was brought to a sobering news story about Christians in Iraq, a country that has already been ravaged by sectarian violence and religion disagreements taken to the extreme. Allow me to quote some of the article: “Archbishop Louis Sako … called on the U.S. military to do more to protect Christians and other minorities in the face of a rash of deadly attacks that has prompted growing numbers to flee the country. → Read more...
Economic Turbulence
Well, it’s been one of those weeks. Everybody’s been talking about what’s going on in Washington with the bailout plan. Companies and banks are seemingly folding or teetering on the brink of failure. The stock market has been swinging wildly like a pendulum, mostly downwards. People, not just those connected to the financial sector, but everybody else, even those who don’t know the difference between a Roth IRA and a T-bill, have joined the dialogue about what’s going on with our economy and how we got where we are now. → Read more...
Flooded
It began with just a few drops of rain. And then it all came down, constantly and never ending. The ground and the trees soaked all the water up greedily, but the water still kept coming. Having drunk all they could, the earth rejected the rest of the water and the water rushed to streams, ponds, sewers and rivers, causing everything to rise, like a bread dough placed in the oven. When the rain finally stopped and the sun broke through the clouds, people found their basements and neighborhood streets flooded from all the water. → Read more...
In Memoriam of Innocence
Seven years ago, on this day, which happened to be a Tuesday then, the world watched in horror as two planes crashed into each of the two World Trade Center buildings. Then it was whispered, there was another attack at the Pentagon. And then there was a plane crash in a field in Pennsylvania, could this have been related? I remember that day as clearly as I remember yesterday. I’ve been told from people who were born and old enough on Friday, November 22, 1963, that they remember exactly where they were when they had heard that President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated. → Read more...
Everything Is Planted Somewhere
With my wife, I’ve recently been watching a bunch of DVDs of an older science fiction television show called Babylon 5 created circa the early 1990s. As a writer, I’m a big fan of big stories, stories that dare to paint a large canvas and tell their stories intelligently and coherently. I especially enjoy stories where characters grow and change over time because, well, that’s how life works. No one’s ever static. Everyone’s always changing because of some external or internal force. → Read more...
My Faith, Your Faith, Whatever, It’s All Good?
A couple of weeks ago I read with great interest an article about a Pew Forum survey on America and religion. In this survey of 35,000 people, “57 percent of evangelical church attenders said they believe many religions can lead to eternal life, in conflict with traditional evangelical teaching.” Additionally, “in all, 70 percent of Americans with religious affiliation shared that view, and 68 percent said there is more than one true way to interpret the teachings of their own religion.” → Read more...
The Joyful Children of God
If you haven’t come to church during the day in the week, you wouldn’t know how quiet and serene it usually is. There have been days when I only see or hear people when they walk by the water fountain. Working in a church is usually a nice place, especially if you want to concentrate on something. This week was an exception. It’s an annual ritual. Once a year, instead of the normal quiet, a cloud of cacophony descends upon Calvary Church. → Read more...
Season’s Greedings
December 11, 2008
Calvary
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Matt
So, the biggest news of this week? Of course, it’s the arrest and indictment of Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich on a bunch of corruption charges. The charges can basically boil down to this: shaking people down for political favors and money for himself and his family. It’s another black eye for the Illinois political system which has become synonymous with the expression “pay-for-play,” which can easily be tracked back to when Chicago was run by the mob, including the famous Al Capone. → Read more...
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