Sometimes you need to put out a fire. Sometimes you need to start one. I am overseeing a doctor of ministry track that engages conflict and resolution. All too often, people think the key to conflict is to avoid it. While there are some conflict situations that one should avoid, like a charging bull or out-of-control car, many other conflicts require that we address them head-on. In fact, there are times when we should start the conflict. Take forest fires,... Read more

I still remember a friend of my Mother asking her, “What has happened to Paul?” I was a high school student at the time; she said that my eyes had become dark. I had cloudy vision. My eyes were a reflection of the conflicted state of my soul during that troubling season in my life. Perhaps you have heard the expression, “The eye is the window to the soul.” Jesus said as much, as have some scientists. In Matthew 6,... Read more

By Paul Louis Metzger and John W. Morehead Scores of people “celebrated” the beginning of Lent yesterday with an observance of Ash Wednesday. Lent is a time when many Christians give up consumer comforts like chocolate or coffee. Pope Francis encouraged Christians to go beyond renouncing such comforts to fast from indifference toward others. The Pope spoke of indifference as a global problem: “As long as I am relatively healthy and comfortable, I don’t think about those less well off.... Read more

The Beatitudes are filled with paradoxes. For example, the kingdom belongs to the poor in spirit, not those with spiritual bravado. The meek will inherit the earth, not those who are easily provoked. Following these and other beatitudes, Jesus goes on to say, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy” (Matthew 5:7; ESV). John Calvin writes of this beatitude: Happy are the merciful[:] This paradox, too, contradicts the judgment of men. [367] The world reckons those men to... Read more

John Muir claimed, “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.”[1] I find evidence for Muir’s statement in what is called a “trophic cascade.” What is a trophic cascade? Encyclopædia Britannica defines a “trophic cascade” as follows: a “trophic cascade” is “an ecological phenomenon triggered by the addition or removal of top predators and” involves “reciprocal changes in the relative populations of predator and prey through a food chain,... Read more

Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux Chief Tatanka-Iyotanka—“Sitting Bull” (1831-1890)— was reported as saying, “The white man knows how to make everything, but he does not know how to distribute it.” Toward the end of his life, the great chief joined the Buffalo Bill Cody Wild West Show. During his brief tenure with the show, he often commented on the state of poor white children. It is said of Sitting Bull that while poor, “he saves nothing of what he earns. He is... Read more

Much of what passes for fast food never really satisfies. It leaves a hunger hole where one craves more. According to an article published in the Daily Mail, Research shows that unhealthy fats found in dairy products, burgers and milk shakes quickly make their way to the brain, where they shut off the alarm system that tells us when we’ve had enough to eat. As a result our hunger is not satisfied, and we eat more and more. The effect... Read more