November 18, 2018
Once upon a time, many years ago there was a good pastor who served a flock in a town a mile or so on the other side of the woods at the end of a well-worn path he had walked for years. Also in the wood there lived a group of people who had some different customs and ways, little money and no land to speak of. History and fate had not been kind to them and the good pastor's wife had put together a small package of needed items for them.She asked the good pastor, "Will you go by the new path that goes by the settlement and take these gifts to those in need?" "I would love to help" he replied, "but...
October 22, 2018
Jesus heard that Lazarus was gravely ill...yet he waited. Days passed before He went to the home of his friend and by that time Lazarus had died. Why the wait? Sometimes we learn something in the space between need and the answer to our prayers. Sometimes, the wait makes the problem so pressing that providing help becomes a demand on our hearts---a demand to which we must respond. No more waiting...
October 7, 2018
All of us are fighting the good fight. There are small and large caring ministries and charities all over Indianapolis working every day to help others. They struggle for volunteers and often for the money necessary to do their work. These people aren't worried about getting awards, they are worried about people getting hungry, cold or shot. We at UNITE INDY know from living in this town for 40+ years that most people don't know how big the needs are. They don't know about the...
September 21, 2018
I woke up this morning and walked out to my car to start my round of meetings and appointments. I had parked on the street as our garage is still full of boxes from our move. As I got closer to my little white Jeep, I realized it was covered with coffee. At first I thought kids were just walking by and someone bumped an elbow or something. But you don't get this kind of coverage by accident. Every inch--front sides and back were covered with coffee. Someone clearly worked at this...
September 7, 2018
What does the future hold? Why do we do what we do, making small decisions that seem mundane at the time, but end up redirecting our daily lives? Six weeks ago Jim and I were happily ensconced in a comfortable suburban house in a friendly neighborhood. Then I got an email from a woman who owns a condo in Broad Ripple--one of my favorite places. I have walked the Monon trail through Broad Ripple for 20 years with a dear friend and meet with a group of disreputable folks at Perk Up coffee house a couple of days a week there...
August 21, 2018
I've always had a little problem with authority. Maybe because my dad was very strict, or maybe because it took me until about 40 to figure out I didn't know everything. At that point God provided a series of lessons to point out to me that basically, I knew nothing. Anyway, I got the message. I got the message again on the 14th of August, 2018. That day is Jim's and my anniversary and it is Jesse's birthday…Jesse is an inmate at Putnamville Correctional Facility who started writing me about a year ago which began a friendship resulting in this visit to said prison. Nothing is easy when it comes to visiting an inmate...
August 7, 2018
Andy Wharhol famously wrote, "They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself."
So, what does Racism have to do with the Central Indiana Community Foundation (CICF)-- an $800 million charitable foundation that holds assets and helps direct gifts to charitable organizations? Ah! There's a question I'm sure some of its board members asked when they were approached with the idea of changing its mission statement from one which reflected its logical operation of promoting charitable giving to one that addressed the issues of racism. I'm sure there were some blank stares...
July 21, 2018
It was a warm Alabama night in mid July when Walter Carr, a local college student, was picked up by police at 4 a.m., walking along U.S. 459/255, a major 4-lane highway. The young man had secured a job at Bellhops Moving and was supposed to start the next day at a client's house in Pelham which was almost 20 miles from Carr's location in Homewood. But, as luck would have it, his car broke down...
July 7, 2018
My son Chris went to Wabash College. It is one of the last all men's colleges in the country and there is a kind of collegial mystique among its graduates that has continued since its founding in 1832. Chris loved his years at Wabash and looks back at his time there as critical to his professional success today. What I really liked about Wabash was the one rule all students had to live by…there were no other rules...
June 21, 2018
My father stormed into the house one day exclaiming to his wife and four daughters, "LET'S GET SOME PRECISION IN OUR DAILY LIVING!" He was exasperated, even raised his voice a little, which was not his style. Who knows what we did to deserve it, but we all started pressing our lips together in an effort not to laugh. You know how puffs of air start coming out of your nose when you can't let a serious rupture of laughter come out? Well a lot of that was happening in the room...
