This morning I was thinking about death. No, I’m not ill, nor are any of my family. But the topic has certainly been front of mind lately. There’s the daily tally of COVID deaths I see every morning in the New York Times. The memorial service I'm conducting this...
I would hide when I heard him coming. My office was at the foot of the stairs down in the basement of the building in which I worked. I knew my boss’s footfall. So, when I heard him descending the stairs, I would turn off the light in my office, lock the door and...
I’m about to return to church. I retired from pastoral work on May 31st of this year, 2020, after a 42-year ministry career. The agreed upon plan was for me to distance myself from our church for 6 months to allow time for the new senior pastor and the church to...
I’ll bet you feel like you are in “The Land Between”. I do. That phrase is the idea behind Jeff Manion’s book of the same title. It is so evocative. You are neither where you were nor where you are going. It describes my current life well. After 42 years of doing the...
What if I told you that the sadness you feel right now is never going to go away…as in ever? That, right there, is likely to cause some of you to hit delete. No way do you want to consider such a depressing future. I get it. But what if accepting that unvarnished...
There was a huge “boom!” and the whole building shook. I ran outside in fear that something horrible had happened. It had. We were preparing for a fun night of BBQ and worship with the men of our church. Hundreds were signed up. As the pit crew was finishing up the...
What jobs did you work in your growing up summers? I worked in a steel mill. It was dirty, dangerous and vintage Pittsburgh. But it surely helped fund my first few years of college! I look fondly on those first 20 years of my life in southwest PA. That strange...
