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 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]

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]