Is there anything more enigmatic in all the world than prayer? Prayer is a core practice for people of faith whether they adhere to Christianity, Judaism or Islam. I can only speak for my own faith tradition and my own personal experiences in prayer, of...
How do you handle difficult people? Difficult people are a fact of life. There is no escaping the reality that some people pose ongoing challenges for us, and those challenges can come in a variety of forms. There are the constant complainers or whiners; the malignant...
As is the case with a lot of people, in my office there are many photographs of my family. A few of the photos are recent, but some of them are not. One of my favorite pictures was taken about 22 years ago. My son,...
Expectations are killing me. I know that probably sounds a little melodramatic, but I’m not sure that it is. My most recent run-in with lethal expectations started with a really challenging weekend. On Saturday I officiated at a memorial service that involved a tragic and untimely...
This year the fifteenth anniversary of 9/11 falls on a Sunday. Many churches all across the country will be commemorating the day in various ways during their worship services. I thought long and hard about what we should do at Calvary to recognize this pivotal day...
In my denomination all pastors are encouraged to be part of a clergy group. There are no guidelines about the groups—who or how many can be in them, how they are structured, what the group focuses on, etc. So, there are some all-female groups, some...
Last week I wrote briefly about the six “Great Ends of the Church.” The third Great End is “the maintenance of divine worship.” I am a pastor, so worship is in many respects my “job.” But, worship is much more than a job to me....
Who am I? Why am I here? What gives life meaning? What is my purpose? These are the sorts of existential questions that sooner or later, we all ask. We want to know that our life has meaning, that it makes a difference that we...
There is a magnet on my refrigerator that says, “Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about learning to dance in the rain.” I’ve been thinking a lot about that message lately, because in my little corner of the universe, it’s not just...
Somehow it is August. I do not know how this happened. My dad told me it would be this way: that as I got older time would begin to speed up, with months flying by like days and years flying by like months. As usual,...