Devotionals

When a mother witnesses her child selfishly snatch a toy from his friend, she leaps to restore order and makes two demands, “Give it back” and “Tell him you’re sorry.”  The first instruction is a matter of restitution.  The offending child must make his friend whole again by returning the item taken.  The second, however, is more nuanced.  In one respect the mother is teaching her child how [...]

Authored in 1913, Pollyanna was a novel by Eleanor Porter that was made into a play, four movie adaptations, a TV movie, a TV series, a musical and a Brazilian telenovela!  It was even the origin of a Parker Brothers board game, The Glad Game, produced for over 40 years. The story is about an orphan girl with an irrepressibly positive attitude that visits her ill-humored aunt (against [...]

While with the police department I worked on a DUI squad.  During a multi-agency task force my team coordinated with several other police departments to provide added enforcement to a particular part of the city.  The various agencies co-located their resources to form a temporary command post where dozens of police officers processed those that had been arrested.  Each agency had tables set up outside of their [...]

When resistance to commitment reaches the point of irrationality, it is clinically classified as Gamophobia.  Opposition to commitment to that degree is associated with long-term relationships, namely marriage, and other significant undertakings, like a career.  The problem can trickle down to an aversion to less substantial things, like a willingness to put things on a calendar.  These people make regular use of words like “might,” “probably” and [...]

The origin of the phrase “a diamond in the rough” is unknown but has been in use since the 1600s.  It refers to a person that has commendable qualities but lacks refinement.  It’s a man that has praiseworthy character accompanied by some “rough edges,” which is applicable to Christians to be sure.  Though the believer has a new heart and a new spirit, she is not yet [...]

“Species Egalitarianism” is a philosophical term for the belief that all species have equal moral status.  It’s an ethic, as it turns out, that may come back to bite you.  Timothy Treadwell was an environmentalist and animal rights activist that spent 13 summers studying, photographing and advocating for bears.  In October 2003, during his pro-bear project, he and his girlfriend were killed and eaten by one. The [...]