“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.” ~1 Corinthians 13:1 (NIV version) The world today is a noisy place. Everywhere we look, there are words of hate and rhetoric being thrown about. People are being marginalized and […]
Tag: Jars of Clay
Still Love in Hard Times
There is idea that is attributed to the German bishop Nicholas of Cusa that goes like this: “The first thought that goes through your mind is what you have been conditioned to think. What you think next defines who you are.” It’s also basically the dual process theory of cognition, where we first make quick judgements […]
Worlds Apart
I can’t remember the first time I heard the song Worlds Apart by band Jars of Clay, but I can remember one of the times I heard that song. Over twenty years ago, I was deep in the desert in Baja California Sur in Mexico, at a migrant farmworkers’ camp. I had made the fourteen […]
Rabble-Rouser
For most of the Christian world, we are in the midst of what is known as Holy Week. It is the week that begins with Palm Sunday and culminates with Easter. It commemorates the last week in the life of Jesus. But the Holy Week depicted in the Bible wasn’t a celebration. It was a […]
I want peace but it’s not what I’m used to
One of my favorite shows to watch at Christmastime is A Charlie Brown Christmas. My absolute favorite scene of the movie is when Linus tells Charlie Brown, Lucy, the cast, and pretty much the whole world what Christmas is all about, quoting a certain passage in the Bible. One particular verse of that passage sticks […]
Where There is Love
Anyone who pays attention to the news will tell you that there is so much in the way of hatred in our world today. Look at the way invasions, mass shootings, book ban parties, even comments on social media accounts are perversive. We make rules against love. We tell people they cannot love others because […]
Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Arms
It’s Pride month. Now, I don’t jump on the bandwagon of acceptance and mark everything I do up in rainbow flags and jump up and down. Nor do I publicly shame anyone who is anywhere on the alphabet that makes up the symbolic nature of Pride like some do. Neither one of those stances work […]
New Year, New Me?
Maybe you’re the type of person who makes resolutions or sets some goals or dreams for the coming year at the stroke of midnight and eagerly plunges headfirst into doing what you set out to do. Perchance you’re more like Lieutenant Dan with the cold hard stare of a depression fueled by traumatic circumstances and […]
Faith Like a Child
Light-up shoes flashed as he ran, unabated by the atmosphere of the adults taking part in the discussion around him. He giggled as he played with a ball he had found, the wings of the bumblebee costume he insisted on wearing flapping with each step he took. Both the shoes and the wings garnered some […]
Consider this
Have you ever thought of the word consider? The word means to reflect upon, to think carefully, to regard something. It means to muse upon an idea, to evaluate a suggestion or a claim. We consider decisions we need to make. We consider qualities in ourselves and in others. We consider ideas that make or […]
K. S. Wood Writes 