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February 2020

February 18, 2020

When an Important Memory Turns Out to be Wrong

My youngest son, Justin, has a remarkable memory--for, as he puts it, "totally useless facts."...

December 2019

December 15, 2019

What May We Hope For?

Advent is the liturgical season that is most meaningful to me. I first encountered the...

July 2019

July 23, 2019

Crows, Ravens, Golden Eagles, and the Holy Spirit

My childhood was filled with unusual characters, all products of my father’s fertile imagination. A...

June 2019

June 16, 2019

The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit walk into a bar: Some thoughts about Trinity Sunday and Ordinary Time

Next to Lent, the part of the liturgical calendar that I have always found least...

July 2018

July 29, 2018

Like this God Stuff is Real

In her wonderful memoir Take This Bread, Sara Miles tells us of a conversation she...

February 2018

February 20, 2018

Beauty for Ashes, or Why Lent is a Bad Idea

One sunny morning in September 1983, when I was struggling in my late twenties with...

February 16, 2018

Look, Don’t Touch

Almost every Sunday during the months I spent on sabbatical a few years ago in...

January 2018

January 12, 2018

What Are You Reading?

Over the holiday season my house always welcomes at least a half dozen new books...

January 09, 2018

Six Flags Over Jesus

My friend Michael lives with his family in Florida. That in itself makes me wonder...

December 2017

December 24, 2017

Grace and Peace

Grace means suddenly you’re in a different universe from the one where you were stuck,...

December 14, 2017

The Great Homesickness

I was the world’s most pathetic camper. One of the (alleged) rewards for 12-15 weeks of...

December 12, 2017

It’s About Time

Time has been on my mind recently. A couple of months ago in my freshman...

October 2017

October 10, 2017

Knowing the Unknowable

Every fall I spend a week with over one hundred freshman exploring the familiar but...

September 2017

September 17, 2017

Mary and Martha Go on Sabbatical

The stereotype of the Type A personality has become an entrenched part of cultural lore....

September 15, 2017

What I Want, When I Want It

I was born into a world in which preference-expression was a highly evolved art form...

September 12, 2017

Soul and Body

This semester I have the privilege of teaching Philosophy of Knowledge, a favorite course that for...

July 2017

July 25, 2017

Step to the Right: Practicing Right Brain Faith in a Left Brain World

After a major stroke, neuroscientist Jill Bolte Taylor lost function in her left brain. But...

June 2017

June 02, 2017

Radical Forgiveness

From the book of Acts, a story of a person who experienced radical forgiveness, then...

April 2017

April 11, 2017

Flowering Trees

At the beginning of the first Holy Week, Jesus killed a fig tree for no...

April 07, 2017

Your Heart’s Desire

I received the welcome news this past week that my forthcoming book, which has been...

February 2017

February 14, 2017

Valentine’s Day for the Mature

Human love in the purest forms we can know it, wife and husband, parent and...

February 03, 2017

Turning Around

Conversion is an odd phenomenon. I've often observed that those who convert, who ''tum around"...

January 2017

January 18, 2017

The Time of the Angels

Is there any true transcendence, or is this idea always a consoling dream projected by...

December 2016

December 26, 2016

Clouds of Glory

The great but incredibly difficult German philosopher Immanuel Kant, in a rare moment of clarity,...

December 16, 2016

I Will Bring You Home

Baptist preacher's kids get to do some very odd things. I memorized large portions of...

December 12, 2016

Constellations

I love the stars. Not as in “Dancing with . . .” or in Hollywood...

September 2016

September 19, 2016

Disturbing the Peace

Last Friday I attended a talk on campus by civil rights lawyer and and law...

September 08, 2016

Embracing the Barbarian Invasion

Every year the world is invaded by millions of tiny barbarians. We call them “children.” ...

September 06, 2016

Good Morning, Psalms

Last Thursday, in just our second class of the semester, I had the opportunity to...

August 2016

August 31, 2016

The Joyful Owl

Just about seven years ago, on a beautiful summer morning very similar to the ones we...

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