From time to time, life pushes us toward cynicism. As the challenges take their toll, we question whether we can find peace. But we can counteract the wear and tear on...

The old adage “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me” is simply not true. This idea that others’ viewpoints and comments can’t hurt us unless...

As I reflect on today’s scripture, I wonder what kind of person the prophet Ezekiel must have been. Here was an official Temple priest who was ripped from his profession and...

Three servants were entrusted with their master’s riches. Two multiplied them, earning their master’s approval. The third hid his away in a safe place and was thrown into the farthest darkness....

“The kingdom of heaven is like a man who was leaving.” It’s a strange start to a parable. At this point in Matthew’s Gospel, the disciples have been following Jesus for...

Sometimes in our suffering, we wait for God awake and alert to the possibilities that God will reveal. And God comes, issuing promises of deliverance. But deliverance does not always come...

Twenty years. It seems so short compared to nine hundred. Perhaps it even seems like an improvement after forty years of wilderness wandering. But twenty years is a long time to...

I raise my eyes to you—you who rule heaven” (CEB). Immediately I think of the climactic scene in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God. Janie and her lover, Tea...

Grace is in short supply in our increasingly polarized world. “Choose a side!” the world demands. There is no room for deviation, no tolerance of complexity. Polarization encourages us to make...

“Stay woke” is a common phrase these days, a cultural call to arms designed to galvanize people’s attention to social and political issues. Wikipedia traces its etymology to African American vernacular...