“I cannot relate to this at all,” said the young woman with brown eyes full of curiosity. “I’ve never been told I couldn’t do something just because I was female. My family and the church I grew up in affirmed women to be everything God has called us to be. I never experienced what you’re...

“Well, I gotta be moving on. I’m needed up in Chesterton. A couple of girls up there think they’re vampires. This Twilight thing has gotten out of hand…” I laughed before Rev. Tim Tom finished telling Sue why he had to run off . I had just started watching The Middle this season, and...

Leonard Sweet (author/futurist/theologian) recently tweeted that when Jesus walked the earth, 6000 Pharisees were employed to support and enforce Judaism’s proper expression. The first Biblical mention of the Pharisees was in the book of Ezra. The original Pharisees consisted of scribes and sages...

Last night I watched the Chris Nolan film Memento. This, I’m sure, leads you to two thoughts. First, what took you so long? The film is eleven years old and is considered to be a masterpiece. Second, did you forget there were college bowl games on? In my defense, eleven-years-ago I was raising...

“Dad, I’ve a strange habit,” I confess. “Yeah, what’s that?” “We-ell,” I begin cautiously, “I can’t leave the house without checking to make sure the gas stove is off.  Sometimes I check it and re-check it five times before I leave.  Or I’ll come back in the house a couple of...

Upon my waking this was the dream: - We were in a room with a youth group of some sort. High school, college. Maybe 50-75 in numbers. One gal was speaking. It was not someone I recognized. She had an eraser in her hand and she was speaking about the power of prayer. To prove her point about how effective...

It’s beginning to look a little like Christmas. You know what that means? Bell weather. During the Christmas shopping season (known liturgically as “Advent”) men and women brave the cold to stand outside stores, ringing bells and collecting change for the Salvation Army. It’s...

I’ve been tutoring a friend of mine in the history of the U.S. Constitution. He’s homeschooled, but he lost parent-as-teacher privileges for being too cheeky or something. So now he’s being punished by having me and several other novices as his teachers. So at least he’ll learn...

After school lets out for the summer, the girls and I speed through neighboring Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, approaching both our Myrtle Beach vacation and Christihimmelfahrt, or Ascension Day, per my twentieth century Filofax calendar.  A software project deadline has prevented Bjoern from travelling...

I recently started a garden. I’ve been growing tomatoes, peppers, green beans and squash. Well, I’ve been trying to grow those things. I thought I should probably have some idea how to produce my own food just in case the manure continues to hit the fan here in the good ol’ U....