September 2, 2017
All told, the greater Houston area is huge, encompassing more than ten thousand square miles--bigger than New Jersey and inhabited by 12 million people. So the job of trolling to find and save thousands of people in snake- and even alligator-infested waters is not only ambitious, it is risky. Yet hundreds of people are rushing in to do what they can to help. Yes, there have been the valiant first responders who have done an amazing job. But there are also "just folks" with a boat...
August 22, 2017
For a few minutes on Monday, the solar eclipse took our eyes off our problems, ourselves, our plans and we looked to the sky.
None of us were afraid, however. We knew what was happening. It had been explained ad nauseam on every electronic portal available. But for the Syrians, during the first recorded eclipse on earth in 1345 BC it was a shock. A historian of the time noted that the sun had been "put to shame." In general, ancient people believed eclipses were signs of of something evil to come: A plague, a war, the death of a king, or worse yet, that the sun was dying. In fact...
August 13, 2017
Pastor John Girton, Jr. and his wife left Indianapolis nearly 20 years ago, living in various cities. Although the news reports he would read about his hometown reflected growth, economic development and prosperity, what he found when he moved back seven years ago was that those stories weren't entirely true. "I noticed Indy was two cities. It was the one I saw on television and the other was crumbling streets, countless vacant homes, high homicide rates and escalating unemployment, among other ills." Most importantly, he saw a community that was invisible...
August 1, 2017
There's an ad that runs on PBS for a river cruise company. It features the company owner, Torstein Hagen in some kind of amazing glass dome as he waxes nostalgically over a roaring fire promoting his cruises. He emotes: "I've learned that time is the only scarce commodity..." In fact, Jim and I went on one of his cruises. It was not one of my better ideas. It doesn't take a genius to know that two people who'd rather work than chat up strangers will not be thrilled with the experience of being (more or less) jailed on a small vessel with 200 of them for a week...
June 19, 2017
As a young kid you could have called me racist. I didn't like white people. I didn't trust white people. I didn't want to be around white people. And I was an angry young man. But when Christ came into my life, my whole world changed…
June 7, 2017
One of the things I've learned over the years is that people stand where they sit. When my husband and Unite Indy co-founder, Jim, (a white, Massachusetts native, transplanted to Indiana many years ago) sat down with Brishon Bond, (a black Indianapolis businessman and member of Black Lives Matter) to go head to head on some commonly used racial terms, there was bound to be some disagreement...
May 27, 2017
The concept of the Good Samaritan is one that is understood the world over. Here was a man who stepped over the divide of belief systems to help someone in need. It is a seminal lesson in how we are to care for each other. The man who was robbed and beaten is unidentified. A priest had walked by and done nothing. A Levite passed on the other side of the road. But the Samaritan took pity on him. Yet, today...
May 16, 2017
Most of us have never talked to a gang member. We probably have never seen a gang member unless he was on the nightly news. But when DeWayne Fincher, former self-professed gangbanger came up to talk, the audience was silent. Dreadlocks falling from his young head, he mesmerized everyone with his story of redemption...
