When others so speak

It is not at all easy to hear unkind words from your critics, or to hear unkind things said of those you know or love.  What should you do in such situations?  I hesitate to offer any easy, pat answer.  I have no such advice, and confess my suspicion of those who advise in such a way. [...]

Read Full Post »

Little Sisters of the Poor

“Something for the poor, please, in God’s name,”[1] begged the Little Sisters of the Poor as they sought, door-to-door, relief for the sick, the poor and the aged. Canvassing the neighborhoods and business districts, they served Catholics and non-Catholics alike in what was likely the first religious home for the aged poor in Nashville.   [...]

Read Full Post »

Home for Christmas

Having spent several days with Laura’s family, we are now safely back home in brown, wet–balmy even– Middle Tennessee.  We left Nashville last week with temps in the 60′s.  Lincoln County, MO had highs of about 12 Sunday and Monday.  We skirted some ice and freezing rain (fine by me) and missed snow (disappointing) only to [...]

Read Full Post »

good for the soul

You should read Mike Cope’s post on the Ex-Demoniac’s Testimony.  As I’ve come to expect from him, it is a word well-crafted in which the warp of the biblical text and the woof of his own story intersect.  The intersection makes for powerful and nourishing reading.  At one level his own story is an entree into the [...]

Read Full Post »

Bobby, John Mark and Henri

I’ve been following John Mark’s and Bobby’s blogs concerning their divorces, and the web of emotions, of questions, of theology, and of ministry in which they find themselves. I hurt for my wounded friends. You can look through about the last month’s worth of blogs for their respective stories (see http://www.stoned-campbelldisciple.blogspot.com/ and http://www.johnmarkhicks.wordpress.com/). They each [...]

Read Full Post »

A Christian word for someone who is grieving

I have two suggestions to help people think through suffering and grief. Look at the online presence of Mike Cope and John Mark Hicks. Both have lost children to disease and illness. Both are trained and competent theologians and ministers. Both reject pat answers and shallow theology. Both offer instead a word which is at [...]

Read Full Post »