The Tallest god in the World
On the way to a conference, Sarah and I recently had the thrill of visiting Dubai. An impressive, ultra-modern city rising in the desert, Dubai’s scale is overwhelming. It had […]
Category Archives: Spirituality for the Rest of Us
A Small But Tenacious Flame
To be a person of faith is to be well-acquainted with waiting. It is to be well-practiced in living in the in-between time of the world as it is and […]
Mud Machine
In a recent book, Vieni Via con Me, Italian author Roberto Saviano points out a phenomenon which takes place in many of our contemporary societies: the mud machine.[1] Whenever someone […]
Mommy don’t go away!
My nine-month old son has just started bawling hysterically whenever I leave the room. It starts when I place him in someone else’s arms: he begins to push his trembling […]
Letting the Fire Rage
“Moralistic-therapeutic deism” is the phrase University of Notre Dame sociologist Christian Smith uses to describe the religious beliefs of North American teenagers. It is the belief that God wants people […]
Beer, BBQ, and a Baby
Beer. BBQ. Baby. One of these things is not like the other ones. Yet recently the three converged. The location: a backyard Aussie get-together. The occasion: I was to dedicate […]
Norway, the Harlem Shake, and the Bible
By now you’ve probably seen and forgotten the viral video craze that was the Harlem Shake. Unless you’ve been living in an Internet-less cave for the last 6 months, which […]
Driven to Distraction
When I first moved to a big city, it took a bit of time get used to public transit. For a prairie boy accustomed to wide open spaces, it was […]
What I learned in my First Half Marathon
I recently ran my first half-marathon…well, “jogged” is a more accurate verb since I run very, very slowly—but I ran/jogged the whole thing. Despite my life-long hatred of running, I […]
What Are We Becoming?
Much to my kids’ chagrin, I hardly ever listen to top-40 radio. Aside from the deficiencies of the music on offer, I can’t stand the mindless advertising, the idiotic banter […]
Wondering Fair 