Nothing I said in What God Wants for your Life got me into more trouble than the chapter on signs and wonders: Don’t you believe in miracles? Don’t you believe that God is active in the world? Don’t you believe in the power of prayer Yes…but I don’t believe that signs and wonders are necessarily indicative of the will of God.  Sometimes the exceptional is just exceptional. For example: I made a major move in employment some years ago —... Read more

News of the Casey Anthony trial has been hard to avoid.  Every major news outlet has devoted space to it. The BBC World News Service ran an article just moments following the verdict in an effort to account for the reasons this trial had received so much attention.  In summary, here are the reasons offered by Washington correspondent Tom Geoghegan: One, given the elements of the story it was too big to ignore. Two, the story had “’cultural equity.’”  Once... Read more

We were on a mission to find Indian Food at one of our favorite restaurants and en route we were listening to NPR’s “Fresh Air.”  Terry Gross was interviewing Nick Paumgarten and we caught the conversation midstream. Paumgarten was talking about on-line dating and observed that one of the random indicators he had found of potential marital bliss was whether or not a couple agreed on their like — or dislike — of horror films.  What about you, he asked... Read more

Our grandson, Henry, has found his first words.  (Actually, he is working on others now as well.)  But the first ones were, “Oh, Wow!”  And they are almost always accompanied by a little hand pointing at something — the picture of sheer delight and wonder.  The experience of watching him respond to the world around him has reminded me of some important truths: All too often the journey into adulthood is one of accumulating cynicism.  The “Oh, Wow!” moments of... Read more

Wisdom is not an accident.  It is not the peculiar endowment of a select few.  It can be discovered, accumulated, cultivated, and appropriated.  But you need to care.  You need to pay attention. It is a choice. Wisdom requires awareness, devotion, effort, and focus.  You cannot age into wisdom, run into wisdom, or borrow it.  It is not a part-time job, a hobby, a serendipity, or recreation. It is a way of life. The fabric of life yields insights, but... Read more

If you are reading this, we are (mostly) all still here and the end is not yet.  May 21, 2011 has come and gone and here we are.  So, perhaps it’s time to ask what “the end” is all about. Obviously, for some it’s about getting the date right.  Deciding whose left behind, caught by “the thief in the night”  — a brick short of the full spiritual load — and, of course, the wise virgin and the faithful watcher. ... Read more

The namesake of my wife’s parish is the Good Samaritan.  So I have been more alert to that great figure in the teaching of Jesus than I might be otherwise.  Of course, the Samaritan has a proverbial and cross-cultural hold on our minds — so he commands a bit of attention all on his own.  Along the way, I’ve come to the conclusion that the Samaritan could use some saving. What is striking to me is how little the parable... Read more

When I was a teenager I loved reading biographies.  (I still do in fact, but I have much less time to devote to it.) One of the things that fascinated me was the way in which people died.  It was probably a precocious neurosis, but in looking back on it, I think my preoccupation with the way people’s lives ended was also rooted in something for which we all long: for our lives to make sense, to mean something, to... Read more

Orthodoxy has become a dirty word.  It is treated as a synonym for “narrow,” “unthinking,” “uncharitable,” “mean-spirited,” “backward,” and “benighted.” But at root, orthodoxy is not about labeling things right for the sake of labeling them — much less labeling other things “wrong.” It’s about accountability to something and — even more importantly Someone beyond us. A wooden orthodoxy that needs “right belief” as a substitute for that Someone is misguided.  But a spiritual orientation that rejects every kind of... Read more

The spiritual discipline of this day involves trust.  Suspended between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, much of life is like this day. We live with tragedy and loss, but not as people without hope. God is at work in the world.  Resurrection is on the way.  Waiting hopefully, means trusting that God is with us, though everything else may suggest otherwise. Read more