A Tipping Point

On the first day of General Conference, I bumped into someone from a former church. Surprised to see her, I asked what brought her here. She said, “For years I grew up in a church where all the decisions were made behind closed doors. Now that I’m United Methodist, I...

Striking at the Root

Last Friday while barreling down I-70 toward St. Louis, I caught a billboard out of the corner of my eye. Its giant letters read, “A house divided cannot stand.” Next to it loomed a picture of Abraham Lincoln. The quote was familiar on a couple of levels. After living...

Somethin’ is Gonna Happen

One night in little league baseball, our son stood in the batter’s box with a full count, 3 balls and 2 strikes. As we waited breathlessly for the next pitch, his young friend standing next to us said, “Well, one thing’s for sure. SOMETHIN’ is gonna happen.” As the...

Praying Dangerously

In a former church I met a woman in her early 50’s who appeared quite cautious. Joan was typically quiet, always conservatively dressed and polite to a fault. As she shared her story, I discovered she had been widowed in her late 30’s and had never remarried. In...

What Does God Want?

What does God really want from you? I understood this better after a crisis in our home. One day without warning, our toaster oven broke. It was just before our wedding anniversary, and in our entire married life, we had never bought a toaster oven. We received one as...

A Scandalous Wonder

It’s not on anybody’s top ten list. In fact, you’ll be hard pressed to find a service where it will be sung today. It just doesn’t fit the spirit of modern worship. It’s not celebrative or catchy. The tune sounds more like a dirge. But the words…the words express the...

An Unexpected Valentine

It was not the Valentine’s Day I was expecting. Leanne and I had already made plans to celebrate when the call came from my sister on February 13. Our Mother, my birth Mother, had taken a sudden turn for the worse. An ambulance had rushed her to the hospital that...