April 7, 2019
We got a notice a couple of weeks ago asking if we or anyone we knew was in the crowd 51 years ago, on the night Bobby Kennedy stopped in Indianapolis during his presidential campaign. It was the night of April 4th, 1968 and Martin Luther King, Jr. had been shot and killed in Memphis earlier that day. Despite fears of riots and concerns for his safety, he went ahead with plans to attend a rally at 17th and Broadway in the heart of Indianapolis's black community...
March 21, 2019
A man was walking across a bridge when he spotted someone about to jump."Don't jump!" He said. "Are you a religious man?""Yes." The jumper replied."Me too." Said the walker. "I am a Baptist—remember God loves you!""I am a Baptist too," said the jumper."Are you a Southern Baptist, or an Independent Baptist?" Asked the walker."Independent." Said the jumper."Oh." Answered the walker, "Go ahead and jump!
March 7, 2019
The Bible is full of moving stories. You know, the ones where someone actually moves from here to there. We've seen Abraham being told to leave everything behind and "go to a place I will show you." There's Ruth who follows Naomi to a new place and a new life. Of course there's the amazing exodus of the Jews from Egypt, and the great commission that sent the disciples all over the known world. Suffice it to say there's a bunch of moving in the Bible...
February 21, 2019
I was with a group of friends recently in a coffee shop and two of them got into heated debate over potholes. (Yes, potholes.) Each offended the other in an effort to prove who was most informed and most powerful. This is getting pretty common. Friends are offended over a word spoken in error, drivers are offended when another driver goes too slow or too fast, shootings occur because a person felt disrespected, and politics: Don't get me started on politics, which we allow to divide friends and families to the extent that TV hosts give advice on how to "survive" holidays with relatives who have different political opinions. Let's face it, It is not a question of whether you will be given the opportunity to be offended but rather, what will be your response when that time comes...
February 7, 2019
Psalm 42:5: Why are you depressed, O my soul? Why are you upset? Wait for God! For I will again give thanks to my God for his saving intervention.This is the low point of Winter. In February my mother used to lighten her hair color. February has never been kind to me either. I'm not complaining. But oh, the temptation is there...
January 18, 2019
Jim and I received an award this week called the Martin Luther King Jr. Freedom Award.* I'm still trying to get my head around having received this. MLK was and is too big. Like when I was five walking around in my father's shoes. King was a superhero, an example of Christ on earth, staring down evil, motivating the spirit inside anyone who would really hear him to take up the good fight. So here we are two years into our work with UNITE INDY and I confess...
January 7, 2019
I love it when people say they have reviewed the past year and figured out what went wrong, and what went right. I wish my memory was that good. But in general, I think people tend to remember what they want to remember. We go into every personal encounter with expectations, and too often, we get what we expect...
December 21, 2018
I saw a bumpersticker yesterday that said "Non-Judgement Day is Near". At first it rattled my sensibilities--challenging as it was to my Christian training. But, after a thought or two, it brought a smile to my lips as I came to agree. Non-judgement day is not only near it has been here for a long time. At this time of year, it only seems appropriate to celebrate non-judgment day as a part of Christmas...
December 7, 2018
Jim and I have been watching a widening crack in the whitewash of political correctness. The politically correct narrative says we must go along with all the trends today. It tells us to "be cool." It says the ideas of our parents and grandparents were for another time. Women, we are told don't need men. Children, we are told, can do fine without fathers. Moms can earn the bacon, as the song says, and fry it up in the pan...
November 21, 2018
We all know someone who is terminally grouchy. The sun can be shining, they might have people who love them all around, but really, for them, nothing is ever good enough to raise a smile. They probably think Thanksgiving is a huge bother. There are groceries to buy, food to prepare and of course, there will be lots of dirty dishes. Hopefully, you are not that guy. But we all have that tendency. We cast aside all that is good in our lives and concentrate solely on any problems...
