I really like to write and I enjoy public speaking, but I had a hint of my tendency to wordiness when my first time in seminary produced a comment from one of my favorite professors. I had just finished a fairly intensive philosophy paper for his class and was...
Listen to this from St. John Chrysostom: "Upon leaving the house one should without fail say, 'I renounce you, Satan, your pomp and service, and I enter into Your service, O Christ.'" It's so radical in its insistence that we actually take seriously the reality of the spiritual warfare...
One of the most meaningful Pro-Life demonstrations I ever saw was a graduating High School class deciding to put out the number of empty seats with them in the graduates' area of all the children who would have been graduating High School with them had they not been aborted....
“Excellence” is a term we hear a lot in sports and in business. And that ties the word to an idea of achievement or progress. But there is also an application of “excellence” when it comes to your relationship with God, and that has little to do with achievement or...
“It’s like trying to take an aspirin for cancer!” OK, that got my attention! The speaker was talking about the dangers of watering down the clear message needed for our group so that it wasn’t so discomforting. But his illustration really drove the point home that some problems need...
In 1861 Robert E. Lee wrote “With all my devotion to the Union and the feeling of loyalty and duty of an American citizen I have not been able to make up my mind to raise my hand against my relatives, my children, my home.” In the end, he...
In the beginning God said.... And with that action God has been using speaking and hearing to start the process of metania (repentance) in the hearts of those who have "ears to hear." There are so many examples of this pattern of God's actions that there are too many to...
Jack Canfield (he's the guy who wrote "Chicken Soup for the Soul") once said "Clarify your purpose. What is the WHY behind everything you do? When we know this in life or design it is very empowering and the path is clear." But what about the motives of others that...
The great, ancient philosopher Lao Tzu said "Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power." And I would, arrogantly, add that the first step in mastering yourself is truly knowing yourself. And that, my angels, is much more profound than...
As a former police officer, I remember well having to memorize the rules of the road so that I could ENFORCE the rules. Of course all these laws were on the books for people's safety, but I can't tell you how tempting it was to reduce that central purpose...
