Play time is one of the divine gifts we ignore. We pray thanking God for food, work, rest, family, and friends. Yet, somehow we neglect the time that is associated with play. Being truly puritanical in our heritage, we American Christians find it easy to be thankful for work. No problem there. We even call “yard” work recreation. One day while walking along a river my wife and I noticed a wild goose floating in some small rapids. He was... Read more

There is no justice in declaring peace when there is neither peace nor justice. We find ourselves being passive when evil is not confronted for the sake of getting along. A few weeks ago I attended a continuing education event where people of the type I like to call “proudly ignorant” continued to interrupt the speaker. These people gave all appearance of attempting to correct the speaker who actually had some expertise on the subject. Yet, their own bigotry did... Read more

What sort of worship is the most meaningful to people? The answer may surprise you. It is not traditional or contemporary. It is neither liturgical or free-styled. It is a funeral. I realized this truth while conducting a United Methodist Beginning Lay Speaker class. Since it was the beginning course there were a lot of aspects of lay speaking possibilities upon which we touched – including leading worship. I asked the class  – regular attenders at church services – to... Read more

I love the ministry because of the very interesting people I have known. My call to serve God was not enough. It was one of those church members who was what we might call a “pillar of the church” told me I needed to learn to love people. At first I did not connect with what he said. How could I not love people? I am a true humanist. I love what human beings accomplish. I like machinery that works... Read more

Glorious Life will begin next week to have weekly installments. Look for my next one titled “Why I Love Ministry.” Read more

Let’s face it. There are many people who believe they can make a more “relevant” or even “revolutionary” interpretation of the Bible. Some people have made big money at reinterpreting “The Revelation of St. John” along with other scriptures and made systems of unbiblical ideology from it. Other people cannot get their minds around the fact that St. Paul opposed homosexuality and lumped pederasty with it. A few people out there are attempting to interpret the natural world with one... Read more

I once thought the object of the devil was to persuade people to choose evil. I now know that makes no sense. The purpose of the devil is to confuse. “Woe to those who call evil good and goodness evil.” Or as George Lucas said it, “evil people do not know they are evil.” What is good? What is not good? This is the confusion of the world. The people of the world will destroy one another over arguments of... Read more

Do you pray? Yeah. Me too. I understand. We are told daily prayer is important. C.S. Lewis’ bureaucratic demon Screwtape said we were being tempted to forget praying. So he meant it is very important. After all, we say “give us this day our daily bread.” Uh. Say that again? Vain repetitions? I know what you mean. But, Thomas Jefferson our unorthodox founding father said repetition is the key to learning. No. I don’t think he prayed much. No. I... Read more

The Lord’s Prayer calls for the name of God to be “hallowed.” Throughout the world of sin the name of God is blasphemed to some extent or other. Christians in our pattern prayer would do the opposite of blaspheme. God’s name would be declared sanctified – made holy – in how it was to be used. We could use the holy name of God in unholy ways. It does not change the fact that the name is holy in and... Read more

I have come to believe that Thanksgiving Day as the American holiday. I know most people would rather focus on July 4th – Independence Day. I agree Independence Day is a major holiday to be celebrated. Thanksgiving Day tells us more about who we are. The Plymouth Colony was the first attempt on this continent to build a decidedly Christian community. Ultimately the attempt failed. But, it was what was learned there that was so important. The Christian concept of... Read more