Note The Troublemakers
There's a strain of thought in modern society called "good trouble." It started gaining more widely known during the Civil Rights era of our societies move away from this notion of "separate but equal." Of course, this notion was easy to dismantle because "separate but equal" is ridiculous on...
Your Faith Has Made You Well!
Have you ever thought about all those people Jesus healed during His ministry here on earth? They were so happy, grateful, and changed. In some cases (the illness of leprosy) they were now free to rejoin society, be reunited with their families, and finally, get their life back. They...
There’s Family, and Then There’s FAMILY
My folks at the parish make fun of me a bit when I talk about how much I love being a Southerner. I regale them with stories from my family and how my grandfather taught me to hunt and about growing up in the suburbs of the South and...
“ALL” Things? Really? Yes, All Things!
I remember the look on his face when I told him that Orthodoxy is "maximalist, not minimalistic." And then I reminded him of years of government promotion of the "minimum daily requirements" of this or that vitamin to be healthy. He slowly began to understand what I meant when...
Divided Against Yourself
"E Pluribus Unum" Out of the Many - One. This is the motto of the United States of America, a republic founded in 1776 after a war of Independence from the British Empire. Of course, now the story of the founding of our Republic has come under fire in...
The Positive Power of Wisdom
I confess I'm a bit of a rebel at heart. Maybe it's my Southern American heritage, or maybe it goes further back in my lineage from my Welsh and Irish ancestry, but wherever it comes from, I tend to eventually have "complicated" relationships with authority. And what makes that...
Like Men Sentenced to Death
There's a wonderful little video running around the internet making fun of those who claim the original apostles and followers of Christ were all lying to get ahead. They lied about the resurrection so they could be powerful. Well, if that were true, they were a bunch of idiots, because...
I Boast About My Weaknesses – The Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul
Henry David Thoreau said, "If I seem to boast more than is becoming, my excuse is that I brag for humanity rather than for myself." I like that. But what if my mind was so reoriented that I can even boast about my weaknesses? This is the invitation of...
But They Are Supposed to Be Christians!
Otto von Bismarck once said, "There are two things you don't want to see being made - sausage and legislation." Why do I want to add "Because both are usually unhealthy." I find this also applies many times to the inner politics in churches. Too many times it isn't a...
The Jealous Type
Are you the jealous type? I guess with me, it all depends. I am jealous of my time. I am jealous of my schedule. But other than that, I can't say I really struggle with jealousy. Oh wait, if I'm honest, I do have to admit I do get jealous...