Believing that Jesus is the Christ and trying to live the way he lives means something in America now.

First, it means Jesus is Lord. That’s an ancient saying. Roman citizens and subjects said it about Caesar long before Jesus was on the scene. Back in those days, the “lord” was the person who protected and provided for the people. They gave him credit when they were doing well and feeling safe.

The first Christians got into trouble because they stopped saying “Caesar is lord” and started saying “Jesus is Lord!” Even though they got into trouble, they kept saying it anyway. They believed that, since Jesus was a greater protector and provider than Caesar, that Jesus alone deserved the title of “Lord.” They believed that only Jesus deserved their pledge of allegiance.

If we are believers that Jesus is Lord–the only protector and provider we need–then we have a different relationship...

Read Gospel of John 13:1-17; 15:9-17

We go through life asking: “Is love real? And if it is real, is it for me? What do I have to do to get it and to keep it and not lose it?”

The Christ knows we’re asking this. He says: “Love puts its life on hold for you. Love puts its life on the line for you. Love is willing to die if it means you get to live. Love chooses you before you choose it—and keeps on choosing you even when you choose something else instead. Love knows you even if you don’t know it back. Love changes your diaper, cleans up your puke, and gets up with you in the middle of the night. Love holds you, kisses you, rocks you, and sings to you (even when Love has a bad head cold). When you’re little, Love carries you around all day in its arms and, when you get big, keeps carrying you around all day in its heart. Love chauffeurs, cleans, and cooks and never takes a break. Love is...

Who doesn’t love a good mystery?

The fun comes from trying to figure out how the story ends.

When I was a kid, our family used to make one or two trips to Tennessee every year. Mom always brought books to read aloud on the long drive from northern Ohio. As my sisters and I got older, Mom started bringing mystery books on those trips. We became a family of detectives, working together to solve the mysteries Mom read aloud to us.

One series of mystery stories for kids–I don’t recall the title–was our favorite. The author ended each short story without solving the mystery for us. It was up to our family to figure it out on our own. After we talked it over, we could turn to a page in the back of the book to find out if we solved the mystery.

Those are some of my favorite memories now: Dad, Mom, my sisters, and I working together solving mysteries as we rolled down I-71 in our old...

Your body heals itself.

Your body heals itself!

Your body heals itself with no direction and remarkably little conscious effort from you.

The sun rises every morning.

The sun rises every morning!

The sun rises every morning and it doesn’t take an act of Congress or a NASA mission to make it happen.

Spring comes around every year.

Spring comes around every year!

Winter kills everything, but we don’t worry because we know that spring comes around every year.

And with spring comes life anew.

We believe the miracle of bodies that heal themselves, the sun rising every morning, and spring bringing the world back to life after the dead of winter.

So is it a stretch to believe that the miracle-working power in bodies, sun, and spring could also raise a Man from the dead?

And if that miracle-working power raised a Man from the dead…could it also not raise you and me from the...

“You know the saying: ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ Well, I tell you to love your enemies and pray for your opponents. This proves that you’ve got God’s DNA in you. God makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and unrighteous. What makes you so special if you love those who love you? Any old lowlife knows how to do that. And if you care only for your family and friends–people who are like you–don’t even ‘moral degenerates’ do that? If you want to claim God as your Father and you know that he loves his enemies, doesn’t it follow that you should love your enemies, too?”–Jesus Christ in the Gospel of Matthew 5.44-48 (paraphrase mine).

The blackbelt of Christianity is the love of enemies.

When Jesus Christ uses the word “love,” he’s not talking about prayers and well wishes from a safe distance. He’s talking about skin meeting skin. He’s...

What is the Union?

Union is not agreement; it is empathy.

Union is not unison; it is harmony.

Union is not monochrome; it is mosaic.

Union is not an argument; it is a conversation.

Union is not lecturing; it is listening.

Union is not an answer; it is a question.

Union is not winning; it is simply playing.

Union is not seeking war; it is making peace.

Union is not a religion; it is a faith.

Union is not either/or; it is both/and.

Union is not about being right; it is about being conscientious.

Union is not closed; it is open.

Union is not the few with authority; it is the many with agency.

Union is not a location; it is a direction.

Union is not the past; it is in the future.

Union is not an established fact; it is an unfolding story.

Union is not perfect; it is striving to be more perfect.

“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though...

What does it look like to be an apprentice of Jesus Christ in America? What does it look like to be a community of Jesus Christ apprentices in America?

Since Jesus Christ didn’t live in America, I look for Americans who live or lived like Jesus Christ.

History seems a good place to start. Yet in the American pantheon, we find mostly men of war.

The life and teaching of Jesus Christ is out of place among such men. The one who taught love for enemies, mercy for those who don’t deserve it, and peacemaking as the DNA of God’s children seems out of place among our American heroes.

And yet there is one man in the American pantheon who put the teaching of Jesus Christ into public practice. There is one man in the American pantheon whose “beloved community” resembles the kingdom of heaven.

That man is Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

In Dr. King’s time, the men who ruled America told us...

This is what it looks like for an overachiever to grow older and wiser.

Saturdays used to be for impossibly long to-do lists. I would sometimes spend an entire hour of a Saturday morning making a list of 20 - 30 projects or tasks to get done that day.

By early afternoon–when it became clear that I would not check off even a small fraction of my list–I would sink into depression and self-hatred.

For most of my life, then, I saw the great quest of my life as this: Be good enough and smart enough to get 20 - 30 projects or tasks done on one day. This was how I would measure the man that I am.

I believed my life was only as good as what I could get done.

And that’s how I remember most of my teens, 20s, and 30s.

Thank God for the maturity and wisdom of my 40s!

Yesterday (a Saturday), my to-do list had five items on it. It’s Sunday morning now and I can see that I only crossed off...

We’re doing New Year resolutions all wrong.

In the context of the New Year, the dictionary defines “resolution” as “the act of resolving or determining upon an action, course of action, method, procedure, etc.”

*The act of resolving.“

What is "resolve?”

The dictionary defines “resolve” as “to come to a definite or earnest decision about; determine to (do something).”

In short, to make a resolution is to make up one’s mind.

So, a resolution is not quite setting a goal to lose 20 pounds.

Rather, it is a decision to change one’s mindset about one’s weight:

“I am resolved that food and vanity will no longer be my masters; I will master my appetite and my self-esteem. I will eat to live, not live to eat. I will enjoy the unconditional acceptance and love of my family and closest friends rather than obsessing over what strangers think of my appearance. I will cultivate inner beauty...

Recent science shows that our brain size limits the number of acquaintances and friendships we can handle at one time.

We can have a loose network of about 130 to 150 acquaintances–coworkers, Facebook friends, folks we see at church, professional contacts, schoolmates, etc.

When it comes to close family and friends, we can handle about five very close relationships and up to 15 fairly close relationships.

This applies whether you’re a billionaire or a panhandler, a beauty or butt-ugly, famous or obscure.

You can be famous, powerful, and rich, but that does not give you greater access to loving relationships with close family and friends. The quality and quantity of those relationships has nothing to do with fame or money or power. When it comes to relationships, every one of us has equal access and equal capacity.

Yet we often work so hard for fame, money, or power as if those...