Ever plan a simple, in-town date and have it turn out every bit as wonderful as a well-planned fancy night out in the big city? I love when that happens. On a recent Friday night, my husband and I head for our local state college's Center for Arts and History to indulge in a poetry reading. Sean Thomas Dougherty is in town, an East Coast poet with a penchant for pool halls. I get to reconnect with some English professors from whom I've taken poetry and fiction classes a few years ago. It's a small but appreciative crowd at the reading. Sean is wonderful to Continue Reading
Why Jesus Refuses to Behave (And Why That’s A Good Thing)
So I'm reading through the gospels chronologically these days, and I'm noticing it again. Jesus isn't nearly as nice as I sometimes think he should be. C.S. Lewis symbolizes Jesus by means of the lion character Aslan in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. Point being, lions aren't kitty cats. Don't get me wrong; I'm not saying Jesus is not kind. Clearly, he is full of mercy and compassion and patience. When he's exhausted and trying to get away from people, but the crowds find him, he starts healing all the sick. He pays attention to people Continue Reading
What Our Feelings-First Culture Forgot to Tell You
How do you feel today? Happy? Disappointed? Hopeless? Ecstatic?Irritated? Whatever feeling you are experiencing right now, it probably won't last forever. Feelings are like the weather. The emotional climate of your heart changes all the time. Feelings have an important role in our lives, but because they are all over the map, we get into trouble when we let them lead our behavior. In days gone by, this wasn't a big problem, because feelings were not commonly discussed. One did one's work, children were to be seen and not heard, and feelings did not enter into Continue Reading
What Jesus Doesn’t Require of People (But Americans Do)
I don't know why it irritated me so much. I was at the bank to open a checking account, and the clerk who was helping me was talking awkwardly around the lozenge she had just popped into her mouth. The real issue wasn't the lozenge. It was her blasted inefficiency. We were almost to the bottom of the page in what felt like an eternal process when she realized she had used the wrong form. We had to start over. The bank clerk had just committed the unpardonable sin, at least in the eyes of a Westerner like me. She had wasted my most valuable commodity -- my Continue Reading