Chris, one of my friends, was in a seminary class when someone raised his hand and asked the professor: What is your best advice on how to be a good pastor?”
“Empathy,” the professor replied. “Have empathy.”
Then Chris raised his hand. “How do you get empathy?
With a trace of sad knowing in his eyes, Read more…
Do you remember the first Rocky movie? (I just looked it up and there have been eight.) In the very first film about the Italian Stallion, Rocky Balboa falls madly in love with the very demure Adrian who works at a Tropical Fish pet store. Adrian is very intelligent, shy, and cautious. Rocky is, well, none of those things. In one scene, Read more…
Have you ever had times when you felt like you just couldn’t breathe? Stress weighs you down and the “to-do list” becomes the “too-much-to-do list.” Sometimes we just need a friend to come and breathe life into us. And one of the ways they do that is with words.
When I was in my teens, I went scuba diving with some friends. Read more…
I don’t know about you, but a few of my greatest lessons on how to love other people haven’t come from church folks. For example, one came from a dance club. You read that right.
Nestled 50 feet off Highway 17 in Pawley’s Island, S.C., rests C.J.’s Beach Club. For years, Steve and I eyed the clapboard building tucked in the grove of myrtle trees, Read more…
Chris, one of my friends, was in a seminary class when someone raised his hand and asked the professor: What is your best advice on how to be a good pastor?”
“Empathy,” the professor replied. “Have empathy.”
Then Chris raised his hand. “How do you get empathy?
With a trace of sad knowing in his eyes, Read more…
God has not called us to go through life alone.
Looking out my den window I noticed two of my neighbors puttering slowly down the street. Ernestine, with her bald head snuggled in a woolen cap, held tightly to Patti’s supporting arm. Patti’s chestnut hair, just two inches long, shone like a victor’s crown of a cancer survivor. Read more…
A burning in my heart has been singeing my conscience for quite some time. The flames rise and relent with the nightly news and the NY Times, but the smoldering tension never quite goes away. Just when I think the embers have settled into a comfortable glow, the winds of injustice stoke the cinders and ignite the flames of prejudice as human beings brush up against each other with ignorant hatred and irrational hostility. Read more…
Have you ever had times when you felt like you just couldn’t breathe? Stress weighs you down and the “to-do list” becomes the “too-much to-do list.” Sometimes we just need a friend to come and breathe life into us. And one of the ways they do that is with words.
When I was in my teens, I went scuba diving with some friends. Read more…
Sometimes God will bring people who need encouragement across our paths in the most mysterious ways. That’s why we need to slow down and look around. Be sensitive to the little nudges of the Holy Spirit. You never know when you will be someone else’s miracle.
Jon Robinson experienced an unexpected miracle at a crucial time in his life. Read more…
On a shelf in my living room sits a black-and-white photograph of a young girl taken in the early 1900s. Her hair is pulled back with an oversized bow peeking from behind the edges of her head. Her dress is typical of the times, with puffed sleeves and a brimming lace collar resting on her shoulders. She isn’t smiling, and she appears to be somewhat awkward, Read more…