Multiple posts address the need to NOT pick up your phone first thing when you wake up. Good advice: avoid email, avoid social media, avoid the news. Here are things I like to start the day with. Maybe it will help you think of an alternative. Nature abhors a vacuum…

The affirmation of visibility — In church this Sunday we will consider Mark 5:21–43, a complex pattern of two interwoven stories. Among the many lessons we could glean from this is the importance of simply seeing the suffering and the needs of those around us. In the middle of that passage, we find the story…

Insights from once commonplace agriculture — Let me be clear: I am no agriculture expert. Far from it. Few of us are these days. According to Market Insider, only about 1.3 percent of the American population now works on a farm, compared with 70 percent in 1840. But I grew up surrounded by hardworking farmers in…

Unless you’re Tim ‘The Toolman’ Taylor, don’t love the tool; love what it will do — If you don’t remember “Home Improvement,” you probably don’t remember the 1990s. Tim Allen starred as Tim “The Toolman” Taylor, who lived for bigger, better, more powerful tools because, well, tools! Perhaps you are a Tim Taylor clone, but most of us fit the mold I learned from a former…

So many layers in this phrase — No matter how dedicated I am to an employer, there is no getting around this truth: when you own a business, you simply take care of it better than if someone else owns it. The difference lies in how you think about a relationship. Do you identify with the business…

Winter is over. At least they say it is so. The sky pays no mind.

The language may change, but human experience remains the same — You don’t hear people talking about sin much these days except in jest. Las Vegas proudly claims the nickname “Sin City,” but generally the word has fallen out of fashion. Churches that talk about it a lot often get viewed as backward, and to fair, they often have an unhealthy…

Things are going to get interesting — Thomas has gotten a bad rap. “Doubting Thomas” we call him and anyone who wants proof. But look closely at John 20:19–31. Jesus didn’t scold Thomas for needing proof. He just said those who didn’t need such proof were happy. Don’t we fall into the Thomas camp most of the…

Poetry Sunday