‘Love your enemies’ is a phrase as old as the Bible. It is a line we primarily ignore because we don’t know what to do with it – largely because we have no idea what it means. ‘Love’ means to know intimately, and to some degree, respect and value – to have a continuing engagement with...

There’s nothing quite as empty As a funeral Where no one laughs. It’s as if we all know Or see for the first time The cold end That waits for us As we hurtle Toward the final unknowable With the full impact Of the last lap Of the speed of life. There are no passengers On this journey.

Just another dream Receding in the distance. I thought by now I’d have more to show For this many years Of being way too busy – But doing what? I ask myself this On my way to a funeral Of someone about half my age As if I should be asking him “Did you finish?” “Did you fill in The empty spaces?” “Or...

Have you ever known anyone imprisoned by a cell of their own making? Perhaps we all do it to some degree, but some do it to the extent that their lives are an ever-shrinking, imploding world of self-absorption.  Indignation can be addictive, and some seem to have been seduced by it entirely. I know...

    Being a Christian is easy – Just abandon all pretense, Remember that “the least of these” Is your benchmark For what matters in God’s economy. Could any of us imagine a world Where each one of us Loved our neighbor as ourselves Who gladly shared And called nothing our own? Or could...

I teach English, writing and public speaking at the college level. There are three key principles of communication; to inform, to persuade and to entertain. Effective and memorable communicators will incorporate at least one, but preferably all three, of these. Rush Limbaugh, much to my amazement,...

A little bird told me. You’ve probably heard this familiar saying. It comes from the Bible, Ecclesiastes 10:20 to be exact. The full version is: Do not revile the king even in your thoughts, or curse the rich in your bedroom, because a bird of the air may carry your words, and a bird on the wing...

I am less concerned about whether there is a Hell or not, than I am about the supposedly agreed upon criteria for going – or not going – there. Most people that I know with – or without – faith presume that there are at least two solid truths about eternity; first, if there is a heaven,  they...

What have they done to the earth What have they done to our fair sister Ravaged and plundered and ripped her and bit her Stuck her with knives in the side of the dawn And tied her with fences and dragged her down! The Doors The time has come for judging the dead, and for rewarding your servants the prophets…and...

During the time of Jesus, the Romans crucified people by the thousands. Virtually every major intersection in most large cities had rows of crosses with bodies in various stages of decay. Bodies were left exposed for vultures and any other scavengers. To put it mildly, these public spectacles of brutal...