Todays’ entry’s title comes from Luke 21:24 (KJV), where Jesus assures his listeners that, despite all the strange things happening before he comes again, redemption (deliverance, salvation, rescue) is close at hand. You and I may have waited, perhaps for years, for (small and large) deliverance from irksome, dangerous or life-threatening circumstances that just don’t seem to go away. The rescuesMORE...
In the past, it would have been too easy for me to write this blog from an attitude of snarkiness, schadenfruede or false superiority. The more I read these columns, though, the more I see that they can be instructive, encouraging and even hopeful. See if my observations match some of your thinking…. My daily newspaper reading includes advice columns. The core content of advice-seeking letters:MORE...
A Backyard Psalm 1When I look at the work of your hands in this place, I marvel and sing “Thanks!” 2You provide homes for your smallest creatures: The rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, voles and birds. The ticks, mosquitoes and ants. Worms, pill bugs, spiders and centipedes find safety, each in their own habitat. 3Living things find the food and water that you provide in abundance. Seeds, greeneryMORE...
This entry illustrates one example of the lifestyle axiom, “There’s wonder in seemingly ordinary things.” Today, the marvel of the compact folding umbrella. From your own experiences over the years, you may also remember other times when you discovered awesome ordinariness…. I’m amazed how the relatively simple umbrella of my childhood has developed into this sophisticated device. AllMORE...
This holiday offers us an opportunity to celebrate the example of national heroes, the people who we can hold up as truly great patriots. One problem, though: Some of our forebears were not saints. Thus this idea: Why not also think about truly admirable saints on this day? Unless you’re part of Roman Catholic traditions, you may not be aware of the multitude of named saints who have been part ofMORE...
Sometimes I do things for no apparent reason. One purpose-free activity that I occasionally revisit: Reading product labels. Sometimes there’s fascinating information hiding in the small print. For example, today I’d like to tell you about one of my favorites, the label on a tube of Gillette® PRO Shave Cream. This is a good shaving cream for anyone who appreciates a product that doesn’tMORE...
Looking at recent e-mails, I’ve noticed a higher number of junk messages and spam—all of them essentially e-garbage. Because I would have to open questionable links in order to unsubscribe, I feel stuck in e-Purgatory, writhing inside the grips of people who want to foul this e-nest. This bird-brained matter seems to characterize most other e-tools. E-mail’s original intent was quicklyMORE...
Chris recently found a little pocket journal I kept when I was in 7th grade. Holding some of my early-teen immaturities, this small diary also reminded me about the ways in which someone gave me a start. Offered me an opportunity. Invested in me. Showed light on the future. That year I played left defensive end on our parish school’s touch football team, started pipe organ lessons, enteredMORE...
This Federal holiday has emerged as another opportunity to honor some matters about our nation that warrant our remembering. Since any holiday can get co-opted to become another chance to sell something—e.g., traditional Memorial Day mattress sales—I’d like to pre-empt that possibility by offering my personal observations about this special day. What’s there to remember? Obviously, the truth thatMORE...
Just a few days ago, I wrote what I thought would be a convincing entry about the inability of AI to possess or use a sense of humor. Although some comedians and humorists seemed to doubt the present capacity of this technology to achieve that pinnacle of human sentience, a greater preponderance of social thinkers now seem resigned to the opposite: That AI will develop a sense of humor that goesMORE...
BOB SITZE has filled the many years of his lifework in diverse settings around the United States. His calling has included careers as a teacher/principal, church musician, writer/author, denominational executive staff member and meat worker. Bob lives in Wheaton, IL.