British scientist, Richard Dawkins, and I have always felt that “it was so thoughtful of God to arrange matters so that, wherever you happened to be born, the local religion always turns out to be the true one.” It’s how Jesus turned out to be Jewish, and that’s how I ended up being a Presbyterian in the middle of Mississippi nearly eight decades ago. For good or ill, we have inherited our faith from our families over generations simply by circumstance of our birth. If you were able to climb up each limb of the family […]
The Waiting Game
Long before the advent of the corona virus into our lives a few months ago, we found ourselves forever waiting. In the express lane of the grocery store or at long traffic lights. At the doctor’s office we learn the meaning of being a “patient”. We call the insurance company to ask a simple question, manage to work our way through the maze of call options with their series of numbers to punch only to receive a recording that “all of the available agents are busy with other customers…but don’t hang up because your call is important to us. Your […]
Food, Water & Ammunition
The current concerns over the pandemic COVID-19 virus along with the consequential economic downturns and shutdowns, have begun to rattle our nerves and undermine our faith and hope in the future. It’s been eye-opening to see how human beings begin to hoard stuff at times like this in a frenzy akin to life-boat mentality. Over my limited lifespan, I have encountered several times when the world was expected to come to an end, beginning with the threat of nuclear war in the 1950’s when bomb shelters were popular in many backyards and stocked with cans of c-rations. Most […]
Under the Circumstances
They are all around us. As obvious as the nose on your face. Like the sky above us, we all live “under the circumstances”. Why, just in the last few weeks, circumstances seem to be in a tailspin. The coronavirus outbreak, the stock market plunge, the end of our twenty-year war in Afghanistan, and the upcoming elections. Underneath all these obvious changes, the climate keeps changing for the worse, the population keeps expanding and refugees can’t find a home. Speaking of refugees, Jesus lived his life under such circumstances. He knew them and accepted them for what […]
There Must Be a Mistake
For some people that phrase is a simple declaration; for others it’s an imperative with a great big exclamation point at the end! There are people who, for whatever reasons, feel constrained to meander through the maze of daily life looking for the flaws. They read books primarily to find a typographical error or a dangling participle before they can get to the pure enjoyment of reading. Of course, there are people in our society for whom this critical attitude is part and parcel of their vocation. Umpires are there to call ’em as they see ’em. The state trooper […]