My wife and I have had the same stainless steel kitchen knives since we got married in 1995. When the blades grow...
In the late nineties, I was force-fed a steady diet of business books by my business school professors. “Thinking like a businessman,”...
I’ll admit: I don’t read a lot of “business” books. Maybe it’s because business books, like some hard-hitting business people I know...
Many years ago, I heard the theory of entropy applied to relationships. Their quality has a tendency to decline over time, this...
I currently have four books and a Kindle on my nightstand, and I’m pretty sure there’s at least one book in every...
In 1996 my family faced multiple—nearly overwhelming—crises that included me leaving a long-term stable job in a ministry setting. No big deal...
When I read Ephesians 5:17, I hear echoes from my past. “Mark, don’t be foolish,” my mom would say. Or, perhaps she’d declare: “Mark, use your head.” I’d hear these exhortations when I...
Sherry was a tutor, hired to review grammar with 10-year-old Bobby in the hospital burn unit. The unit shocked her, and the boy was hard to look at. But she stayed, taught verbs...
In last Thursday’s reflection, we investigated the meaning of the phrase “the days are evil” in Ephesians 5:16. We saw that it’s not so much that literal spans of time are evil as...
When you think “performance review,” do you start grumbling to yourself? Do your palms start to sweat? Do you roll your eyes...
It’s getting close to that time of year when you have to sit in your boss’s office and he or she rates...
I have just walked out of my annual performance review. And this one is noteworthy. It’s my last one; this time next...
Years ago, I was on national television. A reality show whereby I arrived in New York City along with fifteen other smart...
When we refer to someone as a Pollyanna, we don’t usually mean it as a compliment. Pollyanna-ish people always look on the bright side, so much so that they seem to ignore genuine...
As I sat down at my computer to write today’s reflection, I began by typing in the date: “9/11 …” Before my fingers touched the keys for the year, 2014, I felt a...
It’s the first day of first grade, and August wakes in tears. My son says he’s too afraid to get out of...
“How did you get to be such a good storyteller?” I tease, when the others have drifted away. This colleague of mine...
The storyline started running in my head as soon as I pulled up to the property, by all appearances abandoned. It had...
We tell stories, short histories of people living out their faith in daily life. Jesus told parables, a kind of story that...
The first speech Janet Yellen gave as chair of the Federal Reserve Board was to a group of organizations working in urban...
