For many years, I called myself a Reluctant Disciple. It’s not that I don’t love the Lord. It’s certainly not because I haven’t seen His faithfulness in my life. My walk with God has been characterized by a lot of foot-dragging. In some cases, I’ve been pulled, kicking and screaming, into His service. Just look … Continue reading The Reluctant Disciple and The Homeless Woman
You’d think by now I would stop asking, “Why?” “Why did they do that? What were they thinking?” After living this much life, you’d think I might stop being surprised. As I sat in a large waiting room last week, my Judgment Meter was registering in the red zone. We were there for over an … Continue reading We’re Dang Near Royalty
A recent newspaper article described a local high school celebrating its fiftieth anniversary. This year’s senior class dug up the time capsule left by the first graduating class in 1971. It contained various items those teens thought would be interesting or important for a future generation to know about their life and times. Fifty years … Continue reading Time Capsule
A teenager sat with me in a tiny room of the residential treatment center. She was admitted to the program a few days before, and like the other adolescents there, if her parents had good insurance, she might stay there for up to three years. She showed me the scars that ran up the length … Continue reading Squeamish About Blood?
As we see the possibility of this year-long pandemic coming to a close, or at least the possibility of life returning to some kind of new abnormal, I think I’m beginning to see some things differently. I have taken too much for granted. I have undervalued big things and little things. Toilet paper is one … Continue reading Body-life is Life Together
During the years that I worked as an elementary school counselor for a Mississippi school district, I attended many Black History Month programs. The community was 70% African-American. Year after year, the same handful of famous faces were highlighted in presentations, on bulletin boards, and for student writing assignments. Don’t get me wrong, I learned … Continue reading Black History Month: Hidden History
The formative years of my teens and twenties were the late 1960s through the 70s. Those were turbulent times that pulled the foundations out from under many of our solid institutions. The music and movies shouted the changing values and lodged earworms into my young brain. I must admit to a lot of confusion during … Continue reading No Excuses
