We yearn for companionship and presence, empathy and affection, even unconditional love. And all we can seem to be are vessels of the impulses and instincts of this yearning…

Five years ago, this bright and loving soul’s life came to an end. Those who knew Botham Jean (pronounced “BO-thum JON,” btw) said he saw the best in people and did what he could to draw it out of them. Why should we do any different? Why should we see the worst in people? Why… Read more »

“I followed the sound of a jukebox coming from up the levee. All of a sudden, I could hear somebody whistling from right behind me. I turned around, and she said “Why do you always end up down at Nick’s Cafe?” I said, “Uh, I don’t know,..”

How is it that place, a familiar place, can stir the past in painfully beautiful – yet delightful lonely ways? How does a place make us face such contradictions and accept them with little to no resistance?

What we choose to see in our past is perhaps best perceived in our feelings. Sure, the stories have their place, and the wisdom from them has its influence. aBut they way we feel when we go there is special. We need to feel our past. Even if it hurts.

2021 has been an emotional road trip, one that has taken me through many two-lane roads and open highways of feeling and experience. And on a day such as this, in my rearview mirror I shift my focus from what is behind me to what is in the mirror itself.

Every season of the year offers each of us a meaningful way to witness change, to study and learn something new each time we come around the sun for another go. And sometimes, that lesson is quite simple…

Oh, how everything just goes away. Except this, our lament and its burdensome weight. Where can I set my gaze, that I might see past all that I’ve lost and all that will pass? Where can I look to redeem the meaning of my days and fill them with enduring good?

He was legally deaf for nearly 20 years of his third-of-a-century tenure on the airwaves.` Relying on tech and transcriptions he was able to carry on his program up until about two weeks ago. Even on that February day it was surprising he was here: He’d been told more than a year earlier that he… Read more »

There’s something you do that keeps others from being hurt. You do it a lot – whether or not you realize it. Stop, and they’ll hurt. Unless you were stopped, it’s on you.Don’t stop. There’s something to look forward to. A hope, a goal, a dream, an adventure, a reward. Despite the doubts and risks… Read more »

Seldom will someone speak of winter with regard and favor. We see it, too often, for its harshest elements rather than its heart… indeed, its warmth…

Tonight I was swept up in a few memories and a few too many emotions with the news of the passing of a dearly loved man and my trusted advisor in college. Harding University’s colors are black and gold, and when I saw a friend had posted this image of blackened skies over a field… Read more »

Have you ever seen the way the winter snow casts a spell on the night? Not merely the glimmer and sparkle as it plays with traffic signals and Christmas lights, but when what little daylight there was earlier seems like a distant memory. Long after everyone’s snug in their beds and an already quiet day… Read more »

Four years ago this hour, this night, I was spent. Just plain gone. I felt an exhaustion I’d never felt, a weight that was pulling me apart emotionally. My dad was gone. He had died in the early hours of the morning. My head, by now, was on a pillow, my son snoozing at my… Read more »

The car was packed, wife and kids buckled in and ready to head home. I stepped back in the house for ‘one last check’ to make sure we hadn’t forgotten any Hot Wheels, earbudes or toothbrushes. As I did, I sneaked in one more goodbye before we hit the road for home. I sat on… Read more »

Today I came home to news that four baby robins were found in our yard. Two were still alive in a makeshift nest my daughter and son built in a cardboard box. I buried the other two. I can’t tell you how this unexpected situation just brought a flood of emotions over me all evening…. Read more »

“Sometimes I wish I was born in another time, long long time ago…” In the course of a year, I have lost two lovely aunts and two dear uncles in death. In November, my brother-in-law died. He was only 49. My parents have been more burdened with bad health, but by God’s grace they keep… Read more »

How I did it: 1. Water only. No sodas or sugary drinks. This was hard at first when going out to eat, but (a) we don’t go out as often and (b) when I do, I drink water and live to tell about it. (I did have an occasional semi-sweet tea on weekends.) 2. 20+ minutes… Read more »

NOTE: My thoughts below were written in response (and quite on the fly, actually) to an article stating that in DC Comics, Superman is going to renounce his US citizenship – removing “the American Way” from his stance. Whatever. When I saw the last Superman movie “the American Way” was replaced with “Truth, justice, and… Read more »

Atheism is a religion… Its God is self. Its Messiah is random chance. Its Spirit (its guiding force) is time. Its Bible is that all truth and morality is subjective. Its heart is self-centeredness. Its soul does not exist. Its mind is that intelligence arose from non-living matter. Its strength is that the strong subjugate… Read more »

Now cometh November’s bitterest winds and rains, Ending autumn’s sweet colors from its first weary dawn, Yet thirty days hence, amid winter’s birth pains, I shall at last bid thee to ‘get off of my lawn.’ Then deep in the darkening days of December, As cold graying skies loom over year’s end, Perhaps with the… Read more »

        Saturday April 18, 2009     Son, It’s a quarter to 10 as I write. Mom is rocking you to sleep and Liddy is getting ready to bed. (Her bedtime ritual, of course, includes spending a few moments in front of the mirror acting out something quite imaginative.) You’re one today…. Read more »

“I love my country, but I fear my government.” I don’t know who coined that phrase. I’ve heard it for decades. It reflects a conscious awareness that the government can easily become corrupt and interfere with the God-ordained freedoms of man. I use this as my status today to hopefully bring some perspective to our… Read more »

Never mind evolutionism, humanism and relativism. If there’s one thing people are slow to accept it’s the idea that Jesus really died and was really resurrected. Some say he just died and that was it. Others say he faked his death and, well, “got better” after going through that little dust-up with Pilate. Paul (you… Read more »