I had a conversation with some folks recently in which we were lamenting the damage that has been done to some of our relationships due to political hostility, differences of opinion in COVID response and reactions to the social unrest over systemic racism…among others. We’ve lost trust in one another. And many of us have...Read More

It’s all more than we can really deal with, right? How many times have you thought ,“I just can’t”?  The pandemic, the election, the unrest, the doom scrolling, and the everyday stress of life is just too much. This went to another level for me a few weeks ago. Penny and I went to our...Read More

When was the last time you felt a sense of wonder? Wonder is a feeling of awe caused by something surprising or delightful. Been a while since you felt it? Yeah, this long year of our discontent is wearing us down, isn’t it? Monotony is dulling our senses. The goal line of “returning to normal”...Read More

Why isn’t God doing something about this mess we’re in? That is THE question. Isn’t it? Why doesn’t God heal the world from COVID? Why doesn’t he help mitigate the climate emergency? Why won’t he eradicate racism? Why isn’t he doing something about the tsunami of hatred that is consuming America?  Shoot. It’s not like...Read More

While I was processing the mask wars and writing about them here and here, I was drawn back to Edwin Friedman’s book, Failure of Nerve.  The big idea of the book is very provocative. The only way for a nation, company, family, church, etc. to survive in the midst of chronic anxiety (like today’s) is...Read More

We’re not going back. I’m more and more convinced that life has fundamentally changed forever because of COVID-19 and its impact on our world. What does that even mean? On March 20 I received a link to an article that shook me up good. Looking back on it I can’t ever remember reading something so...Read More

It was, by far, the worst snowstorm I’ve ever had to endure. Early January of 1979, Chicago was hit with over 20 inches of snow, on top of 12 inches that had fallen just days earlier. My car disappeared under the massive drifts and the city did a terrible job trying to clear the streets....Read More

Yesterday at Whole Foods a commotion broke out. Lots of yelling. Everything came to a halt as shoppers nervously watched it go down. A hush came over the place as the confrontation escalated. It was over masks. A woman had worn a mask to gain entry to the store, but once inside inexplicably removed it....Read More

What have you read lately that has inspired you? Let me tell you what lit my fire a few days ago. Shortly before his death in mid-July, John Lewis, the U.S Representative and civil-rights leader, wrote an essay that was published in the New York Times just days after his funeral. I had been deeply...Read More

Is there a silver lining to the whole pandemic thing? That question is moderately disturbing to me. Too much death. Too much fear. Too much isolation. Too much controversy. Too much politics. Too much grotesque selfishness. Silver lining? Right. But I have noticed some things that I find quite remarkable in the middle of the...Read More