According to Hebrew tradition there are 613 laws in the Torah. Three hundred and sixty-five, one for each day of the year, are negative (the don’ts) and 248 are positive (the dos). This does not mean principles were not understood. In Mark 12 after Jesus...
It must be time for the Oscars because I hear people asking, “Who are you wearing.” My favorite response was, “J. C. Penney.” It is a great question to ask any time of the year. And considering what Paul wrote in Galatians the answer is...
I’m sitting here staring at a blank computer screen unable to think of anything to write about. My face is illuminated by light from the screen. There is just nothing there. Wait a moment. I have an idea. According to the Book of Revelation in...
It’s not every day one is cursed by a gypsy. It wasn’t me. It was my wife. I was sitting in a park in St. Petersburg, Russia. It was a glorious day and my wife had drifted off a way to take a picture when...
One of my graduate students has a 16-year-old student who says he is anxious to start a family. He is from a home with nine children whose parents do not work. He wants a child so the government will send him a monthly check just...
Do you have some deep dark secret? Do you live in fear that someone will find out and tell? Are you worried that this blight on your character will become common knowledge and you will be socially shamed? I wish I could assure you that...
One of the great mysteries of life is how do we understand our very own minds. The process of trying to do so is called metacognition or to put it simply, thinking about thinking. Metacognition enables us to understand our values, where do they come...
Psychiatrists, psychologists, priests, pastors and counselors (sorry counselors doesn’t start with a P) have known for over a century how healing it is for one to express, either verbally or in writing, one’s feelings about stressful things. There is something very therapeutic about putting our...
The worst ever combination of two words is “if only.” When my mom was in a nursing home I visited her each afternoon on my way home from school. During those visits I passed an uncounted number of people sitting in the hallways. On occasions...
Seventeen years have passed since we were stunned by the horror at Columbine High in Colorado. It will be decades before the name Dylan Klebold will not make people pause and wonder why. Just now his mother, Sue Klebold, has written a memoir entitled, A...