When Sarah and I were married in 2012, a honeymoon was not in the cards for us. We were married in the ICU of St. John’s Hospital, as I was in the middle of a 2-week hospital stay for various ailments. So we never got a honeymoon. That’s been at the back of my mind […]

This entry started its life as a Facebook post, but in the midst of formulating it in my head I decided that it would probably work better as a blog entry. Besides, this poor space really does need more love. My mother passed away this past Monday. It was not unexpected; her health had been […]

Last week, I was very pleased and proud to sign a petition at the website www.chogaffirm.com. It calls for the denomination Church of God, Anderson, Indiana, to be affirming of the LGBTQ community, and to apologize for past wrongs. There’s more to it, of course; those interested can go to the website and take a […]

It was the fall of 1987, and I was attending my first convention of the Washington Council Of The Blind (WCB). I had attended the national ACB convention the previous summer, and it hadn’t gone well. In fact, I never even met any people from my own state. I was eating dinner in the hotel […]

DAY 23From the devotional book Beyond Words by Frederick BuechnerHAVE NO ANXIETY about anything,” Paul writes to the Philippians. In one sense it is like telling a woman with a bad head cold not to sniffle and sneeze so much or a lame man to stop dragging his feet. Or maybe it is more like […]

Back doing this after a hiatus of over 6 months. Beyond Words Day 21From the devotional book Beyond Words by Frederick Buechner MARY COULDN’T SAY she wasn’t warned. The angel came with an Easter lily in his hand and stood so still he could have been one of the columns in the loggia where they […]

It’s been a while since I wrote in this venue, so here I am to do so. First, an apology. I did not intend to stop my postings of the Beyond Words devotionals. Life just got busy, and I just never got around to restarting it. I will be restarting it soon. Frederick Buechner’s book […]

I cannot recommend the book How Minds Change by David McRaney highly enough. In essence, the book discusses the scientific reasons how, and why, our minds can change. I normally don’t care for scientific books, but this one completely hooked me. If you read this book while keeping in mind the ongoing societal food fight […]

I am spending this week attending a writer’s conference put on by a group called Writing For Your Life. The conference itself is called Writing Dangerously, and it features some heavy hitters in the Christian publishing field. Already several times this week I have felt like what James Stockdale, Ross Perot’s running mate in the […]

DAY 19From the devotional book Beyond Words by Frederick Buechner “OF THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS, anger is possibly the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both the […]

DAY 18From the devotional book Beyond Words by Frederic Buechner “SLEIGHT-OF-HAND MAGIC is based on the demonstrable fact that as a rule people see only what they expect to see. Angels are powerful spirits whom God sends into the world to wish us well. Since we don’t expect to see them, we don’t. An angel […]

When I first heard that Queen Elizabeth had died yesterday, I have to admit my initial reaction wasn’t reverential. In fact, I posted a little bit of snark on Facebook. I’ve just never been someone who has followed the Royal Family’s doings. In my mind, we fought a war almost 250 years ago to disconnect […]

DAY 17From the devotional book Beyond Words by Frederick Buechner “IT WASN’T BECAUSE ANANIAS held back from the poor box some of the proceeds of his real-estate deal that Saint Peter came down on him so hard. The poor would get by somehow. They always had. What got the old saint’s goat was that Ananias […]

Today was happy birthday to me. I now start my 58th trip around the Sun. 21183 days now behind me. I’m fairly sure I don’t have that many days left to me. I can remember a time when I thought people who were approaching 60 were pretty darn old. Well, Kevin, welcome to pretty darn […]

DAY 16From the devotional book Beyond Words by Frederick Buechner “WHEN THE PROPHET AMOS walked down the main drag, it was like a shoot-out in the Old West. Everybody ran for cover. His special target was the “beautiful people,” and shooting from the hip, he never missed his mark. He pictures them sleek and tanned […]