While on an Alaskan cruise this summer, I heard a story from an Alaskan native of the Tlingit tribe that I will use to talk about our faith and how to put the Golden Rule into practice. The Tlingit speaker told about a breakthrough in the tribe's relationship with the National Park Service. Barred from harvesting on what the tribe considered its own land, they negotiated with the NPS to collect seagull eggs for just one day. The speaker was a teen at the time and was one of t

Marketers talk about creating fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) in their target audience. They want you to feel FUD about yourself, your current solution to a problem, your standing in society, and so forth. FUD is a powerful weapon to motivate you to buy. As Christians, we have to guard against FUD and recognize these elements as tools of Satan. How can we push back on them? Let me preface the discussion by saying that doubt, on its own, isn't necessarily bad. Questioning c

Luke 10:33 A Samaritan, who was on a journey, came to where the man was. But when he saw him, he was moved with compassion. I was getting desperate. Midway through a four-hour flight, my wife Sara had experienced two severe medical conditions. A diabetic, her blood sugar had shot up near 600 (which is dangerously high). Sara was also experiencing stabbing pains in her chest and back. I did what I could in row 21, but I ran out of options to counter these conditions. I escala

Ephesians 2:8-10 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. One of the things I worry about when I talk about putting faith into practice is that readers will think I'm proposing to earn God's grace. Nothing could be further from the truth, but I want to cle

This is a summer rerun from Sept. 2023. It still feels relevant today. The world's problems can feel overwhelming. War and conflict in Gaza, Ukraine, and beyond. Threats to our democratic, financial, and even religious institutions. Violence and crime that could strike any of us. Of course, if I could either go backward or forward in time by ten, one hundred, or one thousand years, I would find an overwhelming set of problems beyond my capacity to fix. The world will always b

From the 1950s into the 1970s, University of Arkansas football coach Frank Broyles and University of Texas football coach Darrell Royal did battle through their teams. Their games were usually close, including the 1964 14-13 Arkansas win that paved the way to a national championship and the 1969 "Big Shootout" 15-14 win by Texas that was the key to their national title. The rivalry was intense. Broyles convinced his players that the Longhorns represented the evil empire of ri

(Photo belongs to NASA Science) This post is a summer re-run from 2025. Did you know there is a narrow gap within Saturn's rings? The Keeler Divide, a mere 25 miles wide, exists because of a tiny five-mile wide moon called Daphnis. Its gravity sculpts the rings around it, creating ripples and grooves in the majestic rings. Daphnis is an illustration of how small things can matter even in a larger environment. When the Jewish people returned from Babylonian exile, they were sl

I realized recently how often I pray to God in the manner of Festivus. Odd statement, I know. Festivus is a sardonic, alternate celebration during the Christmas season, popularized on the TV show Seinfeld and based on real-life events in the family of a show writer. Festivus has three unusual features: It is celebrated with an unadorned pole rather than a Christmas tree, as pictured. (Photo credit to Celeste Lindell; photo shared on Flickr based on CC BY 2.0 Attribution 2.0 G

Grading each other's sins is a sport much older than World Cup soccer. I'm not talking about theological gradation of sin. For example, Catholics and some Protestants divide sins into mortal (inexcusable) and venial (forgivable), while other Protestants measure all sin equally as separation from God's will. I'm not arguing theology here. Instead, I'm talking about the practice of how I measure your sins against my sins. My sins only get a yellow card, to use soccer jargon, an

Where is God for you? Or a better way to put it, where do you experience God? Many of us have found a place or activity where we experience God. It might be during worship service at a church building. A lot of people might respond how they experience God in nature or creation, even during the creative process. Some feel God's presence in prayer or meditation. Some will say they have experienced God in their worst moments: in a hospital room, during a dark night of the soul,

I have a sign - actually, a painted wooden block - that sits on my desk. My wife Sara gave it to me, knowing how I try to cram something into each of my 24 hours every day. A Type A never has enough time on their hands. Since she gave it to me, when I lay my head on my pillow at night, I often think of the saying on this wood block. It's time to not only lay down my head but to lay down my expectations and my anxieties. The day is gone. Another one awaits, and I need to rest

When President Abraham Lincoln attended a church service in Washington, D.C., a reporter breathlessly ran up to him afterward. He asked Lincoln, "What was the sermon about?" Lincoln replied, "Sin." The reporter persisted. "What did the preacher say about sin?" Lincoln answered, "He was against it." I love Lincoln's straightforward answer. But the truth is, we humans have an interesting relationship with sin. If you asked us what would we say about sin, we would also answer th

The United States Secret Service supervises the inspection of counterfeit money. They train their agents and share with merchants how to determine if a piece of currency is authentic. For each bill, a set of characteristics makes it authentic. For example, all Federal Reserve notes, from the $5 bill on up, have a clear thread embedded vertically into the paper. The thread is inscribed with the denomination of the note and is visible only when held to the light. The Secret Ser

To wrap up this blog series on apologies, we need to turn the table and consider how to forgive others when we have been wronged. Specifically, how do we receive an apology? Experts and culture have plenty of ideas on how to forgive others. While good ideas abound, let's stick with the biblical view. First, it's clear we are supposed to have a forgiving nature. When Peter asked Jesus (Matthew 18:21-22) how many times we are supposed to forgive repeat offenders, as many as sev

When we do harm, even if unintentionally, our image of ourselves as a good person is threatened. As I mentioned earlier in this series on putting faith into practice by apologizing, we try to convince the other person - and ourselves - that our intent was not to harm or offend them. This is how we defend our precious view of ourselves. But once we do the work of apologizing for our impact - not our intent - hard work remains. We must be introspective about why impact happened

Who does the work during an apology? The offending person or the offended person? When we are in the wrong, we may think extracting a statement of forgiveness from the offended person is the goal. Then everything is right. I once had someone seek my forgiveness by saying, "If I have ever done anything to harm you, I apologize." That wasn't good enough for me. I felt this person had actually done several harmful things and weren't acknowledging them. Fortunately, when I challe

Why does it feel like people are bad at apologizing to us? Probably for the same reason we're bad at apologizing ourselves. Deep down, none of us want to be seen as a bad person. When we offend or injure someone in some way, we don't want to be thought of as a bad person or to feel like a bad person. So, we try to convince the other person - and ourselves - that our intent was not to harm or offend them. This brings about a terrible apology, frankly. And I've given it myself

I don't know about you, but I imagine you are as bad at apologizing as I am. Most of the time, I don't want to apologize. When I do, I apologize badly. Yet, there is a good reason to apologize. Jesus told us to. We'll get to that in a moment. But first, this is the initial installment of a four-part series on apologizing. I believe apologies are needed more than ever. As Christians, we need to be kind and considerate, healing and restoring, making good when we have been wrong

"Spare the rod and spoil the child" might be the most misunderstood verse in the Bible. A Christian author recently approached me about this verse, thinking it sounds harsh but probably wasn't meant that way. We went on to discuss Psalm 23, which says, "Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me." If the rod were an instrument of pain, King David wouldn't have described it as a comfort in the 23rd Psalm. Actually, the rod was an instrument of guidance. As David well knew, the rod

I was walking along the Via Dolarosa in the Old City of Jerusalem when a man strode past me, trailed by a little boy, crying out to his father. "Ab-BA! Ab-BA!" This is not how you actually pronounce "Abba" as we see it in the Bible. Compare it to shouting, "Dad-DY! Dad-DY!" The father stooped to speak softly to his son, then sent him back to his mother. This modern-day scene compares to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. In agony as he awaited his arrest and crucifixion, Jesu