Sometime before 10 p.m., on the night of April 18, 1775, William Dawes left Boston to ride to Lexington and warn John Hancock and Samuel Adams that there was a detachment of British soldiers on their way. Around 10, Paul Revere left by a diff…
I enjoy hiking. Not to the extent that it could be called a hobby, but I do look for moderately strenuous walks in the two-to-four-hour range when visiting a new place. My tendency is to seek places that are not theme parks or crowded beaches…
The corner of the world that I happen to live in grows more amazing daily. The pace of change is beyond what even our most brilliant minds can fully process. Even our most visionary leaders admit, when they are honest, that no one knows what …
It’s hard being on both sides of a dispute between friends. Maybe “sides†is not the best way to think about it. It’s hard to support both people caught in what seems to be an intractable situation. It happens in businesses, churches, and mos…
I am perpetually conflicted about Memorial Day (and Veterans’ Day). I think that is not only O.K. but is the stand that those who love people and hate war are likely to drift toward. War is awful. I say that having never been within 300 miles…
Most of our lives have a cadence. Even those of us with jobs that we know will challenge us every day because of unpredictability have routines and training that keep us grounded and centered. Some of the rhythms are short — the breaths we take, or our heartbeats. Others are longer — the sea…
The first key to making the day better for others is to intentionally make your own day better. There are days when that is not possible, but that is not most days. I don’t think the world is full of rude people. I think that most of us, on most days, are simply thoughtlessly getting through…
I was having a conversation with my son a few days ago. He is a Marine Corps pilot. We were talking about the phenomenon of someone excitedly sharing a brand-new bit of knowledge that they gained with a friend or a parent, and the parent or friend having to resist the urge to respond, “That’…
If you have been reading this space for very long, you may recall that I refer to some days as “Noah days†and others as “Jonah days.†I stole this from someone a long time ago, but it has served me well when calibrating my attitude.
I have a remarkably complex relationship with mowing my yard. I don’t say, “mowing the grass,†because a great percentage of what is growing there is not grass. There are at least a dozen different flowering plants, many of which are early to…
Ponderosa Baptist Church had a ribbon-cutting Sunday for a $1.5 million building that houses “what might be the most interesting ministry our church does,†said Pastor Norman Cotton.
I hate war. I hate the destruction of property and disruption of the economy. I hate the killing. I am familiar with “just war†theory, but it doesn’t make any of it better. National leaders, whether we like them or not and whether we conside…
This is the time of year that the Christian world thinks about resurrection. We think about death – and life. The greatest victory comes immediately after what looks to be the greatest defeat. Outside, just now, standing next to the garden pl…
I think there is a surprising source for us to sort out all the things we hear going on around us. At least to think about how to process all that is happening in the world. The book of Job is much more than a book about suffering. It is also…
We do not like to see our children get hurt. We do not like to see our children in pain. When our kids get sick, we would like to take their place. When they are suffering in any way, we hurt for them.
If you were to write down the first rule of your life, what would it be? What is at the core? What is the one thing that every other decision you make hangs upon? We may say what it is without realizing how much that core has been influenced …
In our world of innovation and new technologies, it is easy to forget the value of repetition. Repetition is necessary for mastery of any valuable skill. Enough repetition soaks into our minds and our muscles so much that we can learn to do h…
