The Divine Critic

Ernest Hemingway’s Pulitzer-winning novella, The Old Man and the Sea, is about a Cuban fisherman, a marlin, and sharks. Or it may have been about something entirely different. In 1950 after a 10-year publishing drought, Hemingway released Across the River and into the...

Finish Your Course

Every life runs a certain course, including yours. To have a sense of what that course is and to stick to it is the making of a fulfilled life. This story starts with a lady who lived across from the local high school in Wyckoff, NJ. For years, Dorothea Clapp prayed...

A Mother’s Intuition

A Mother’s Intuition

The mother rushed to scoop up her toddler who fell on the playground. “You’re OK, I got you!” She brushed off his knees. “Everything will be OK; I promise.” A child wants protection from harmful things beyond his control. He wants a restoration of tranquility and...

Homeward Bound

Have you noticed that certain human yearnings transcend our mortal existence?  Such a yearning saved the life of one of the last century’s noted journalists. Malcolm Muggeridge introduced the world to Mother Teresa and her work among the poor. Before becoming a...

Community of Faith

With whom are you living your life? You’ll know the real answer to that when life takes a twist. A tornado twisted up a town in Mississippi last month. The residents learned that they are strong together. They are leaning on each other, determined to rebuild their...

Solving Life’s Mysteries

I do not know if British actor and comedian Russell Brand has arrived anywhere on his spiritual journey. But he’s saying things that might be helpful to someone looking for answers to the mysteries of life. Brand’s tradecraft can be offensive as he entertains the...

Endurance

I see the headlines and I wonder how the survivors will cope. Families lost more than 20 loved ones in the Mississippi tornado. More lost their homes. Some lost their whole town. The Nashville school shooting raises more intense questions. Do you wonder if you would...

Resurrection Matters

Jesus Christ came back to life after his death on a cross. It is the greatest event in human history, with eternal implications for you. Have you considered this central claim of Christianity, that it actually happened? Or is Easter just a cultural event about...

Athletic Theologians

Scottie Scheffler won the Players Championship this month, becoming the new world No. 1 golf professional. After his Masters win last year, he explained that winning at golf is not his ultimate purpose. “The reason why I play golf is I’m trying to glorify God and all...

Remember

G.K. Chesterton was a writer and philosopher of the early 20th century. The memory of trench warfare and mustard gas lingered as he considered the future. “When men choose not to believe in God,” he wrote, “they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then become...

Goat Man

Charles “Ches” McCartney (b.1901) had quite a following in small Georgia towns along the old Dixie Highway. He was a preacher known as the Goat Man. His circuit was along those tree canopied, two lane highways adorned by old barns with “See Rock City” fading on their...

Draw Near

Woodstock was a high tide of countercultural revolution in the late 1960’s. The rock concert in New York was a hedonistic parade of reckless abandonment and self-worship. The older folks feared that all younger folks would become irresponsible, dope-using,...