“What does your Father do?” I don’t know whether little children are asked that question as much as in the past. What I remember, though, is that when it was asked of me or my young classmates, the childish response or awkward silence that followed could be either a proud moment or a painful one. […]
Earlier in the week, BP announced that it “would appoint an independent mediator to review and assist in the claims-payment process for damages caused by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.” Regarding that plan to settle out of court claims, Business Week online, reported that lawyers for some of the fishermen said, “Telling the fishermen […]
On this Memorial Day weekend, have been reminded again of how many of our brothers and sisters in uniform return from active duty to say, “It’s not about the politics of the war.” It’s about protecting the back of the soldiers fighting beside you. Ironic isn’t it. Even in the hellish insanity of war, what’s […]
Over the last couple of weeks, work assignments have taken me to Singapore, Taipei, Taiwan, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Along the way I’ve had a chance to spend time with co-workers, meet friends of RBC, and see some of the ways that East and West are closer than they are far apart. In Taipei I […]
Imagine a different scenario for our first parents: What if Adam and Eve had come away from the temptation angry with God for withholding the knowledge of good and evil from them, but with none of the forbidden fruit’s after taste in their mouth? Imagine instead that, after talking to the Devil, they even agreed […]
Whether God is all we need surfaced in our discussion of “Christian ideas that can drive you crazy.” Seems to me that this question shows again how, by a simple shift of perspective, or motive, a statement can change meaning. All of us would probably readily affirm that, when God is all we have, we […]
The other day someone gave me a book that has gotten my attention. It’s called, Love Revolution: Rediscovering the Lost Command of Jesus by Gaylord Enns. I was skeptical at first. Expected a predictable rehash of a subject we’ve all heard a lot about. But the author told his own story of brokenness in a […]
In our day we have seen a national leader insulted by an Iraqi journalist who used a press conference to throw his shoes at the head of an American President. Something similar happened to David of Israel. If you have just a minute, have been thinking about the way King David responded to an enemy […]
Am sitting in a coffee shop after our return from Jerusalem… looking through the early morning darkness at an American flag hanging at half mast. Wondering whether the lowered colors are for losses of our own soldiers or for the suffering people of Haiti… My thoughts go to faces of those I had a chance […]
On arriving in the Middle East my cab driver said that he used to be on “the left.” But said he had come to the conclusion that Arab and Jewish people would never be able to live together. Later an Israeli friend said, regarding peace, “The United States has been the savior of the world.” […]
