Tag Archives: Faith journey

Idols

Ben Howard’s song “The Fear” repeats the prophetic and potentially haunting refrain: “Oh, I will become what I deserve.” [1] While what we deserve may be subject to debate or even delusion, I can’t help but wonder if Ben has put his finger on a fear that most of us experience when we allow ourselves […]

Broken Shells

I live in a coastal town, and the beach is often where I walk or exercise.  My wife and I also enjoy winding down in the evenings together by strolling south to the decades old pylons anchored in the sand, especially at low tide when the beach is as wide as two football fields. Walks […]

Keeping It Simple

Some people describe what being a Christian means in very complicated terms.  They point to various doctrinal statements and propositions about God, Jesus and the Bible, and insist that embracing them makes one a Christian, and applying them constitutes “the Christian life.” Never mind that a multitude of other churches claiming the name of Jesus […]

An Audience of One

No one likes to be overlooked or ignored, especially when it comes to any good deeds that we do.  That is why people have through the ages made it a point to do their good deeds or religious acts in a way that achieves maximum visibility or exposure.  Whether it is through long, flowery and […]

When Henry David Thoreau observed over 160 years ago that “the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation”[1], I am pretty sure he had no inkling of specific problems we struggle with in the 21st century.  I mean, how could he possibly foresee the national emergency which is the epidemic of opioid addiction, or the […]

Under Construction

I’ve had an ongoing correspondence with a man about spiritual things.  We met under unusual circumstances and I learned, in a very tense and difficult situation, that this man identifies as a Christian.  So do I.  That led to a series of letters that started when he first reached out to me by “snail mail,” […]

When my wife and I had our fourth child, we knew we needed to move.  We had already added onto our starter home with child #3, and simply had no will, or room, to engage in another construction project.  So, we began looking at homes, and thought, after considerable time, that we had finally found […]

Bearings

I was lost in the woods once.  It was frustrating because I was several days into a trek across Michigan’s Upper Peninsula with a group of guys.  When we started out, we were young college students in search of adventure, but after a week in the rugged Northwoods, we were really just cold, hungry and […]

Drift Away

The summer of 1973 is a fond memory for me.  As a young teenager in Maryland, my Dad’s military station at the time, life seemed pretty care-free, and the things that made me smile were simple: riding my bike, sandlot baseball with my buddies, and those long days of summer when we kids would leave […]