Sometimes a random link on the internet takes you places you never would have discovered on your own. That’s what happened when I was reading an article by Courtney Martin, the author of “Do It Anyway: The New Generation of Activists.” Courtney was writing about the young people who are attracted to complex problems and social change in other countries but fall into the trap of what she calls the “reductive seduction” of being drawn to problems that are urgent, highly visible and seem readily solvable to our best and brightest. In the middle of the article she linked to an essay by C.Z. Nnaemeka, “The Unexotic Underclass.” The essay…

We came to our community over 30 years ago. Not long after we arrived, I had the privilege to meet and get to know men and women who had carried public and charitable responsibility in this community for generations – and did so until they died. Sometimes their children took their place and sometimes not. I don’t know if all of these men and women would have described it this way, but to me there was a clear sense of having a call to this place. They were not simply living here but had made a life here. They had wealth and an ingrained sense of caring for others. In…

Peace is good. War is bad. Right?  Not always. In fact, there are times even now when making peace is simply accommodation and the avoidance of a necessary war. “So then, the Lord left some nations in the land to test the Israelites who had not been through the wars in Canaan. He did this only in order to teach each generation of Israelites about war, especially those who had never been in battle before…They were to be a test for Israel, to find out whether or not the Israelites would obey the commands that the Lord had given their ancestors through Moses…And so the people of Israel settled down…intermarried…

Earlier this week I was with Peter Greer of Hope International. He was in town to speak to the faculty and board of East Texas Baptist University about the importance of the board’s continuous focus on the mission of the school and the dangers of drifting. But he also talked with them about the role of periodic self-reflection on the part of the board members individually to make sure they were building not only the school but their own inner commitment to the deeper purpose of the school. Peter’s approach was neither preachy or pointed. It was an invitation to stay true both personally and corporately. I had the same…

A few years ago a friend and his wife lost their son to suicide. I attended the service and then wrote a blog that expressed how I felt about their tragedy. Shortly afterwards, my friend asked me to work with him putting together a small conference to help families who have experienced the pain of mental illness. I thought about it for a few days before telling him that this issue was not my “sweet spot,” and it would work best if he found someone for whom it was a passion. We saw each other periodically over the next two years. He repeated his request each time, and I always responded with the same answer. It was just not for me. One night as I was getting into bed, I was startled to hear a voice in my…

The church service before I taught Sunday School this week was not to my taste. It’s hard for me to believe God finds this edifying. The music was too loud and hands were raised throughout the worship center, perhaps tentatively at first but then accompanied by a little swaying and pointing toward the ceiling. People started to move their lips. I have thought about recommending we have a special section at the back for people so inclined. Furthermore, we’ve switched from offering plates to those velvet bags to keep you from seeing what other people are putting in. And the large screens make the service feel more like Cinemark than…

In 2010 Emilio Estevez starred in and directed his father, Martin Sheen, in the movie, “The Way.” Sheen plays Tom, an American doctor who comes to France to collect the remains of his son, killed in the Pyrenees in a storm while walking the Camino de Santiago. But instead of returning home, Tom sets out on the pilgrimage to honor his son’s desire to finish the journey. What he doesn’t realize is the profound impact the Camino will have on him as it has others over hundreds of years. People flock to the “the way” in Spain for many different reasons every year. For some, it is a time of…

In 2010 Emilio Estevez starred in and directed his father, Martin Sheen, in the movie, “The Way.” Sheen plays Tom, an American doctor who comes to France to collect the remains of his son, killed in the Pyrenees in a storm while walking the Camino de Santiago. But instead of returning home, Tom sets out on the pilgrimage to honor his son’s desire to finish the journey. What he doesn’t realize is the profound impact the Camino will have on him as it has others over hundreds of years. People flock to the “the way” in Spain for many different reasons every year. For some, it is a time of…

In 1963, when I was a junior in high school, four of us decided to take on President Kennedy’s challenge to walk 50 miles in one day. His brother, Bobby, had just finished his own walk, trudging through snow and slush from Washington, DC, to Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia – wearing Oxford loafers on his feet. We were inspired and anxious to do the same. Up at dawn in our loafers (and with a carton of cigarettes), we headed out with no forethought except the vague determination to return heroes and probably be invited to the White House. Five miles into the hike it began to rain and, of course, we…

I was impatient because I felt my head – not my heart – condemning me that I was just standing there when I should be doing something practical to help…and there was only one thing I knew to do.