Consider these thoughts from Mark Twain

I saw this first quote in McCullough’s Truman book (pointed out to me by my lovely wife) so I went looking for confirmation of it on-line and found the other quotes as well: 
Always do right; this will gratify some people and astonish the rest.
- Note to the Young People’s Society, Greenpoint Presbyterian Church, 1901
Do right and [...]

Do you see a river of life (creation) or only a river of death (sin)?

People of Reformed theological persuasion tend to be quite passionate in describing sin patterns–at least in theory. We feel at home with concepts such as Total Depravity (thank you Calvin. Some day I’ll share my friend Doug’s bible study: “Why total depravity leads to joy”). We know that even our best isn’t very good. Yes, we [...]

Jefferson vs. Adams: Two leader’s style of communication

I’m finally getting around to reading McCullough’s book on John Adams. After writing my post on some of the differences between prophets and slanderers, I read these descriptions of the two. Both had their strengths and both had significant weaknesses (especially Jefferson’s apathy toward his debts and his slaves). But, here notice the contrasts between two of [...]

Painful words in the church: What’s the difference between a prophet and a slanderer

For those who might not know it, Mark Driscoll wrote a blog post regarding Ted Haggard’s admission of sexual immorality. The post contains some comments regarding protecting pastors from such problems. While several of the points are useful, one point in particular offended many:
Most pastors I know do not have satisfying, free, sexual conversations and [...]

Science Monday: Do women have more power to get their men to come to counseling?

The nightmare of every beginning counselor: your new client doesn’t show up for the second session. The first session seemed to go just fine. But the client fails to show and doesn’t call or return calls to reschedule. What happened, the counselor wonders. Was it me? There are a number of interesting attempts to find [...]

Hike off the Turkey

About to hike to the top of Dennis Hill in CT. Not a big hike but  one with friends and food. At the top is the shell of an old house now turned into a pavilion with fire places. Our friends go every year and this year we get to join them. The view should [...]

Happy Thanksgiving

Once again, we’re on the road to Connecticut to my wife’s family thanksgiving celebration. We’ve missed it only once since 1990. Sometimes I wish we could have our own dinner and not travel, but mostly I’m glad we still have family to see. This one is going to be a bit different since my mother-in-law [...]

Painful words in the church: What are we to do with our stories of pain and mistreatment by other Christians?

Its no revelation that Christians hurt each other in some very serious ways. While I believe that more people have been loved by Christians than hurt, the painful reality is that we can do so much damage. Hence we have books such as Dwight Carlson’s, Why do Christians shoot their wounded. Here’s what often happens. [...]

You hurt me! How do you respond to hurtful words?

A couple of recent incidents have me thinking about how we handle our hurts, especially within the church. Yesterday, the news media carried the story of Michael Richard’s (Kramer from Seinfeld) racist verbal attack of two African American hecklers during his standup routine. Here’s the storyin case you missed it. After getting riled up by [...]

Science Monday: Does everyone respond to grief and trauma the same way?

**Warning: this post is about trauma and trauma responses. Given the number of folks who have had traumatic experiences, it stands to reason that some readers may find the post below troubling (nothing graphic though!) because they struggle with the aftereffects of trauma in their lives. If you do read, make sure to read to [...]