The word is synecdoche. It is a literary term meaning a part of something representing the whole. In a way we can apply it to our human tendency to generalize about something using very limited data. If we have a bad experience with a particular...
Spring semester is waning. Projects are coming due. Procrastinators are not yet panicking; that will happen in about ten more days. Last evening I made an impassioned appeal for my undergrads to PLEASE get their assignments turned in. (This is something you never have to...
It was a dark moonless night on our street that has no street lights. (I’m glad. We can see stars.) Our black lab was outside making her final night rounds. Often she sits in the darkness staring off into the forest. I’m sure she hears...
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love to hear you sing. At least that was one of the reasons of a man who this weekend during a church choral number got out of his seat, walked to the front and...
If it had been the beginning of November I would have cranked up the snow blower and cleared the driveway. Five inches of snow packed down by the car would have made the driveway icy for three or four months. But this is April with...
One evening a few summers ago our dog came into the house with light coming out of her mouth. It was amazing and spooky. I followed her as she hurried back outside. This was just too weird. She was running around the yard snapping at...
March 21 was the deadline for a one million dollar Powerball winner in Wisconsin to claim his prize. The ticket owner most likely never knew he had such a prize. It was probably washed in his shirt pocket or is in the box between the...
This morning I watched a little red squirrel crawl up a tree and out onto our suet feeder. Much to his delight it popped open and the suet cake fell out onto the ground. I’m sure I heard him say, “Yippee.” Down the tree he...
Have you ever wondered why Samson’s name shows up in Hebrews 11? Hebrews 11 is a list of moral and military giants and right there he is between Barak and Jephthah. He is like the Hebrew equivalent of a Marvel Comic Book character who should...
Prilosec advertises that you can’t beat zero heartburn. Well, maybe they are wrong. There is heartburn and then there is heartburn. It’s true you don’t want the heartburn they are talking about but don’t forget Luke 24:32. “They asked each other, ‘Were not our hearts...