Ash Wednesday can help us think about mortality
Ash Wednesday reminds me where I’m going every year, and it makes me ponder where I am right now and whether I’m making the most of the time I have before me.
Learning to risk in ‘Paddington in Peru’
In these times, churches have to be like Mr. Brown – they have to embrace risk for the sake of something greater. We know that success is not guaranteed, and we cannot know what repercussions might manifest from opposing naked cruelty.
Jimmy Carter was there when my congregation needed him: Remembering a president
President Carter knew that those who lack housing or food are not merely political pawns, but the real presence of God in our midst. What we do, or don’t do, to serve them reveals everything about what we value in our world and in our congregations.
In ‘Gladiator II,’ the gods are a joke, but belief isn’t
As the Colosseum was a monument to ancient Roman power, shopping malls, political rallies, and sporting events are monuments to America’s present moment. All are important, even replacing religion in many instances, because they are the embodiment of victory, something that Americans are willing to pursue to dangerous ends, even if it threatens our country’s continued viability.
In ‘Moana 2,’ the stories make us
We do not make the stories; the stories make us. We are products of stories of longing, finding, losing, and things made whole that have no reason to be.