Piscine Molitor Patel got named after his father’s best friend who loved to swim. This friend enjoyed swimming at the Piscine Molitor, a luxury pool in Paris. Instead of giving their son their friend’s name, his parents named him after the swimming pool. But kids at school often teased him, calling him “Pissing Patel.” So he shortened his name to Pi.

On July 4, in 1776 the delegates to the Continental Congress signed the Declaration of Independence. With that signing our country was born. Today we celebrate America’s birthday. What are we celebrating and why should we remember?

At a time when civil discourse is no longer assumed and disruption of basic rights is prevalent and frequent, it is well to consider and reaffirm the primacy of religious freedom to American democracy and celebrate it.

Today I’m happy to host Ethel Gould as a guest blogger. During her seminary arts apprenticeship, she has served as a writer for a ministry to our neighbors experiencing homelessness. Here she passes on some of what she’s been learning: 

A panhandler’s presence on a street corner has always brought to my mind an old story about seminary students stepping over a homeless man on their way to a final exam about Jesus’s parable of the Good Samaritan.

Authorities arrested Pastor Andrew and Norine Brunson in 2016—church-planters in Turkey for more than twenty years—and later accused them with terrorism. They released Norine thirteen days after the arrest, but Andrew remained imprisoned.

“One of the biggest challenges in prison is uncertainty,” Pastor Andrew said. “Maybe I will spend the rest of my life in prison. Maybe they will make a political agreement and get me out. Maybe they won’t.”

Pastor Andrew begged God to rescue him, but also desired to be willing to serve His purposes. “I would pray, ‘Lord, I want to be willing. Help me to be willing to serve Your purposes, even if it means life in prison.’”

Sometimes life feels marked by seasons of uncertainty. And like Pastor Andrew, we want to be willing to serve God’s purposes—but we need His help to be willing.

IS THERE UNCERTAINTY IN YOUR LIFE?

Romans 4 offers us hope.

“It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.” This quote from Dickens’ best describes my memories of summer days as a child. I could hardly wait for summer vacation. No school! No homework! The whole day to play. It was truly the best of times. No sooner was school out than the days became too hot to do much of anything. Friends went away on vacation or away to camp. I quickly became bored with no where to go and nothing fun to do.  It was also the worst of times.

Sitting in a class room on a warm May day looking out the window as the branches swayed in the breeze and the butterflies danced among the blossoms always filled my heart with longing for summer vacation to begin. Lying in the grass under the shade of the tree out back trying to survive the hot humid August heat of an Oklahoma summer my longing quickly turned toward cooler September days and hanging out with friends at school. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.

May God deepen our compassion for those who live in this tension and bring us wholeness and peace

Since I find myself on another jury today, it's only appropriate to run this 2013 blog post again . . .

Yesterday I was selected to serve on a jury for a trial that is anticipated to last three to four weeks.  The jury selection process was an all-day affair, lasting over twelve hours and creating quite a sense of camaraderie in the process.

I keep thinking about the three major take-aways from this experience.

A toaster was all it took to throw me into a crisis of faith yesterday. I love toast as much as the next person, but it wasn't the actual toaster that triggered my downward spiral, but what the toaster represented.

Have you ever seen a really old door on a house or stone wall with the thick iron hardware that creeks every time it opens? Back in the day, big heavy doors stood as formidable barriers that couldn’t be breached by force. Yet many of these doors were no match for prying eyes. The huge iron keys required to unlock the latches were so wide that you could actually put your eye up to the keyhole and look through to the other side.