“Eleanor Rigby died in the church and was buried along with her name; nobody came. . . . All the lonely people, where do they all come from?” Have you ever felt as though that anthem to loneliness was written for your life? Loneliness has nothing to do with how Read more…
Some of the people I admire most are those who age gracefully. You know what I mean. Anyone can complain about what age does to the human body—sight and hearing fade, memory fails, hair falls out, chin gets baggy, clothes shrink, blah, blah, blah. Nobody wants to hear about your Read more…
Adam and Eve surely had no idea that their mad experiment would go so horribly wrong. They could not possibly have imagined that being disconnected from God would mean being connected to diabetes, HIV, strokes, and congestive heart failure. We can’t even see the viruses and bacteria that assault us. Read more…
Everybody feels down now and then. Everybody gets the blues. But that’s not depression. Depression is a daily prison of self-hatred, a life with long stretches of wretched darkness. The darkest place of all for a Christian is to fear that it was God who sent the misery. Has God Read more…
Not long ago a man driving on the Hoan Bridge high over Milwaukee’s harbor watched in horror as a woman got out of a parked car on the bridge deck, climbed over the railing, and jumped to certain death hundreds of feet below. A great many people can identify with Read more…
Does anybody feel ashamed about anything anymore? The immediate response might be no. Criticism like the phrase “you ought to be ashamed of yourself” doesn’t seem to haul much freight anymore. Cohabitation and childbirth out of wedlock no longer carry much social stigma. But I think people still feel shame. Read more…
“I wish my faith was stronger.” “I wish I could believe like my grandmother.” “I don’t have much of a faith.” “My faith is so weak.” Sound familiar? Do you worry about your lapses in faith? One of the great things about the Bible is the unflinching honesty in its Read more…