Saturday Mornings

The life of the nation is secure only while the nation is honest , truthful , and virtuous. -- Frederick Douglass

AXIOS Not a treatise, but I do have a few questions. On the subject of abortion, neither side claiming to represent critical views really ...

How we walk with the broken speaks louder than how we sit with the great. -- Bill Bennot

Ever noticed …how we, as people, become convinced of something? And, how often the dynamic involved is rooted in mere repetition of an idea...

When Jesus of Nazareth prefaced his enigmatic sayings with the words, “let those with eyes to see, see, let those with ears to hear, hear,” ...

Thank God for scientists — for what they help us understand about the nature of things, how they help us observe the world, and understand w...

Visual  - "Presiding": ' Poem  for the week' -- "The Dark Night (XVIII)": Our love is woven Of a thousand stran...

Only love can heal the wounds of the past. -- Bell Hooks

It doesn’t seem hard to observe that one thing about environments is that the participants in any given environment are pretty adaptable to ...

I'm wondering ...do all living things have not only a gift (a kind of beauty) to offer the world, but also a unique defense mechanism to...

What it is like to be oppressed? I don't really know; do you? And, so, I don't understand what the exhilaration of something like em...

Humility is a signature virtue of the Christian faith . Joy is its signature emotion. -- Miroslav Volf Though most certainly not intended...

There is often a problem, if the value of what is observed about life is determined by its popularity. When a society ends up viewing crisis...

2022 BigPicture Natural World Photography Competition

Life is not meant to be easy, my child; but take courage , it can be delightful. -- George Bernard Shaw

Falsehood is so easy, truth so difficult. -- George Eliot Without integrity, we have nothing to build on...or with. And, I’m not lying. But...

Learning never exhausts the mind. -- Leonardo da Vinci

I’ve noticed …that the defects I think I see in other people often times seem unapparent to them.  Accordingly, some of mine must not be app...

Healthy religion is always humble about its own holiness and knowledge . It knows that it does not know. The true biblical notion of faith...

In the Bible’s Book of Luke, there’s a parable about a religious person, who has all the right opinions , and a tax collector, who is cultu...

1 out of 4 people will believe nearly any lie, if it’s simply repeated. When democracy and capitalism become bed-fellows to incorporate th...

Teaching has become one of the most draining jobs in America. Today’s teachers are navigating the threat of school shootings, a pandemic and...

' Poem for the week' -- "This Unveiling": This is the pressing question of every age:             What is it that we cann...

He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how. -- Friedrich Nietzsche

Somehow, we all get to the point where we shift our perception of what is important, from what we have lost to what we still have. Whether i...

We know true collaboration happened when the idea can no longer be traced to one person.  -- Simon  Sinek

Ever noticed ...how looking at things in too small a frame often makes you smaller, too? The path to 'size' is a little counter-intu...

Today many people talk a lot about people leaving churches , giving up on Christianity , and rejecting Jesus. In reality, they have given up...

Instagram:  kat_armas

All that you’ve loved is all you own. -- Tom Waits See all human behavior as one of two things:  either love, or a call for love . -- Marian...

Visual - "Mess of Life": Winona Lake, IN

Today, with the radical right the most loyal voting bloc in the party, Republican leaders refuse to call out even the most extreme statement...

Helping any of us can help us all. -- MacKenzie Scott

How do we think about mental health, in a personal way? Like many things, it is often easier to consider mental health in the abstract or...

The internet has provided all of us with an advanced class on using innuendo, piercing invective and anger to make a point with our writing....

This is one impression gig!  Couldn't have been a better day. Pics here ….

Through contemplative nonviolence, we focus on the nonviolent Jesus and the Holy Spirit of peace , love, and compassion , and in so doing, w...

We tend to stick with what we like — which more often than not are just things we’re familiar with. It doesn't seen hard to observe (un...

' Poem  for the week' -- "Ahead and Around": Met, quarreled, quilled the bird of peace, Untidied a pleasant plane. Ahead a...

How people think about the country depends on the stories they hear about it. -- Heather Cox Richardson In the old days, there was a lot of...

For all the things that politics is interested in legislating, it seems like it’s much more about how to deal with symptoms than it is abou...

Instagram:  Adam Grant At the root of our polarization problem is a deficit of intellectual humility .  Too many people refuse to admit th...

I'm wondering ...if it is our job to notice .

Christianity should feel like, "my love for others continues to deepen," not "my beliefs are more correct than anyone else...

We assume a lot, until we’re forced to reconsider. Almost any serious engagement of life seems to result in a shift in the questions we...

On the Lighter Side :

What is the meaning of life ? That was all — a simple question; one that tended to close in on one with years, the great revelation had neve...

Much of our lives seem to be increasingly simulated.  Is there is a tipping point over the degree to which our experience with life is simu...

Instagram:  stephenmattson