Barbecue chicken green beans spaghetti rolls On a cool day in October at least fifty-four homeless people received this hot meal from a woman celebrating fifty-four years of life The woman and her friends decided to forgo her usual birthday dinner in a restaurant choosing instead to cook and serve meals to people on the streets of Chicago On social media she encouraged others to also perform a random act of kindness as a birthday gift This story reminds me of Jesus rsquo words in Matthew ldquo Truly I tell you whatever you did for one of the least of [... more]

ldquo Who rsquo s in the mirror rdquo the psychologists conducting the self-recognition test asked children At eighteen months or younger a child usually doesn rsquo t associate herself with the image in the mirror But as kids grow they can understand they rsquo re looking at themselves Self-recognition is an important mark of healthy growth and maturation It rsquo s also important to the growth of believers in Jesus James outlines a mirror recognition test The mirror is ldquo the word of truth rdquo from God James When we read the Scriptures what do we see Do we recognize [... more]

A hotel chain rsquo s commercial featured one little building standing amidst a dark night Nothing else was around The only light in the scene came from a small lamp near the door on the porch of the building The bulb cast enough illumination for a visitor to walk up the steps and enter the building The commercial ended with the phrase ldquo We rsquo ll leave the light on for you rdquo nbsp A porch light is akin to a welcome sign reminding weary travelers that there rsquo s a comfortable place still open where they can stop and [... more]

A man named James took an adventurous -mile journey down the West Coast of the US mdash biking from Seattle Washington to San Diego California A friend of mine met the ambitious biker near the cliffs of Big Sur miles from his starting point After learning that someone had recently stolen James rsquo camping gear my friend offered his blanket and sweater but James refused He said that as he traveled south into the warmer climate he needed to begin shedding items And the closer he got to his destination the more tired he became so he needed to reduce [... more]

I love a good game of Scrabble After one particular game my friends named a move after me mdash calling it a ldquo Katara rdquo I rsquo d been trailing the entire game but at the end of it mdash with no tiles left in the bag mdash I made a seven-letter word This meant the game was over and I received fifty bonus points as well as all the points from all of my opponents rsquo leftover tiles moving me from last place to first Now whenever we play and someone is trailing they remember what happened and hold [... more]

As I enter the final few minutes of my forty-minute workout I can almost guarantee that my instructor will yell out ldquo Finish strong rdquo Every personal trainer or group fitness leader I rsquo ve known uses the phrase a few minutes before cool down They know that the end of the workout is just as important as showing up for it And they know that the human body has a tendency to want to slow down or slack off when it rsquo s been in motion for a while The same is true in our journey with Jesus Paul [... more]

While attending seminary I was working full-time Add to that a chaplaincy rotation and an internship at a church I was busy When my father visited me he said ldquo You rsquo re going to have a breakdown rdquo I shrugged off his warning thinking he was of another generation and he didn rsquo t understand goal-setting I didn rsquo t have a breakdown But I did experience a very rough dry season in which I fell into depression Since then I rsquo ve learned to listen to warnings mdash especially from loved ones mdash more carefully That rsquo s [... more]

My mother shared with me how she chose not to attend college so she could marry my father in the s but she always held on to her dream of becoming a home economics teacher Three children later though she never received a college degree she did become a nutritionist aide for the state of Louisiana rsquo s health system She cooked meals to demonstrate healthier meal choices mdash much like a home economics teacher As she shared her dream with me after recounting the events of her life she proclaimed that God had indeed heard her prayers and given [... more]

No words Just music and moving During a -hour Zumba marathon amid the COVID- pandemic thousands of people from around the globe worked out together and virtually followed instructors from India China Mexico America South Africa parts of Europe and several other places These diverse individuals were able to move together without any language barriers Why Because instructors of the exercise craze Zumba created in the mid- s by a Colombian aerobics instructor utilize non-verbal cues Class instructors move and students follow their lead They follow with no words uttered or shouted Words can sometimes get in the way and [... more]

In in an effort to prevent clumsy or careless people from breaking items in a shop a Miami Beach storeowner posted a sign that read ldquo You break it you buy it rdquo The catchy phrase served as a warning to shoppers This type of sign can now be seen in many boutiques Ironically a different sign might be placed in a real potter rsquo s shop It would say ldquo If you break it we rsquo ll make it into something better rdquo And that rsquo s exactly what rsquo s revealed in Jeremiah The prophet reminds us that [... more]

The little red rectangular box was magical As a kid I could play with it for hours When I turned one knob on the box I could create a horizontal line on its screen Turn the other knob and voila mdash a vertical line When I turned the knobs together I could make diagonal lines circles and creative designs But the real magic came when I turned my Etch A Sketch toy upside down shook it a little and turned it right side up A blank screen appeared offering me the opportunity to create a new design God rsquo s [... more]