As an undergraduate student at Baylor University, I was part of a volunteer ministry that arranged for students to minister in churches once a month. I’ve wondered how those mainly small, rural churches tolerated what a kid preacher like myself had to say. But they did, and most of them did so with grace. One …
Mahatma Gandhi, who led India to independence through nonviolent resistance, once said, “It is better in prayer to have heart without words than words without heart.” Fortunately, there are those who pray with heart AND words, like Sister Hill, the wife of one of my students, Pastor Willie Hill. I teach a night class comprised …
We can learn how to live meaningfully from those who have lived their lives to the fullest. But we have to take time to listen to our elders rather than disregard them because of their age limitations. My mother-in-law, Ruth Ann Wilburn (or Roo, as the grandkids call her), reminded me of that on the …
If you are parked at the corner of Main Street and Broadway in Altus, Oklahoma (my hometown), facing south, you can turn right and head west on U.S. Route 62. It will take you all the way to El Paso, TX. But if you choose to turn left and head east, that same highway will …
We sit silently at the drop-off line at school, still dark outside with the time change, car lights in front of us flickering, the kids edgy, Emmie upset that the outfit she picked out the night before didn’t look as good in the morning, Eli telling her to get over it. I choose to ignore …