Contemplating Our Mortality Last count, 63 medical doctors have succumbed to the Covid-19 virus in Italy. Eighty-three hundred healthcare workers there have been infected. A relative of mine who is a nurse in Chicago texted family members saying Covid-19 hospitalizations are doubling daily in her hospital, and she, with other nurses, are being retrained as […]
“Oh, oh, I’m getting scared. . . It could be true.” It was a landmark statement, considering its source. He was a 20-year old cook, a self-professed hedonist, self-assured that there would be no consequence in this life or the next for his “if it feels good, do it” lifestyle. I was a 33-year-old seminary […]
Jesus’ brief rebuke of two of his closest disciples, James and John, ought to make us pause and consider our own spiritual lives and ambitions. “You do not know what kind of spirit you are of; for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them” (Luke 9:55-56a). The […]
The unthinkable has happened. One hundred million Americans are on lockdown—ordered to stay home. Fifty-five million American school children are at home—as states have cancelled classes for who knows how long. Non-essential businesses are shuttered everywhere. All mass gatherings have been cancelled or postponed—even, God forbid, sporting spectaculars such as March Madness and the 2020 […]
It was a different Sunday morning in the Wallace household. I was sitting at the breakfast table about the time we would normally be greeting each other before morning service. Being the spiritual leader that I am, I decided to encourage Jeanie and Abby by reading a CNN article about the most optimistic best-case scenarios […]
“For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12). I was so excited to hear that at least a couple […]
Jeanie and I had a common thought this past week. It occurred to each of us independently that we ought to watch the 1981 Oscar Award-Winning Film of the Year “Chariots of Fire” again. We had seen it the first time in a movie theater in Lincoln, Nebraska while we were still dating . . […]
It was what has now become another typical Sunday night on American Idol. What had once been a night when American families would gather to enjoy good, wholesome TV, where right was right and wrong was wrong and there was rarely any confusion between the two, has now become an insult to and an assault […]
“For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12). I was so excited to hear that at least a couple […]
Suddenly, we Americans, in an unprecedented fashion, have been given an unexpected treasure that we have often complained we rarely have enough of—free time. How often have we complained that we simply don’t have enough time? How often do we excuse ourselves from things we would otherwise like to do because of a lack of […]