Blog Archives | Page 16 of 40

A Refugee Haven

July 2019

I am flying into Beirut, Lebanon, for a conference, and from the air the city looks to deserve its reputation as “the Paris of the Middle East.” Upscale shops and apartment buildings hug the hills bordering the turquoise Mediterranean. On the ground, however, the city tells a different story. Holes made by artillery pockmark many of the downtown buildings, a remnant of the civil war that raged from 1975 to 1990. Lest Lebanon forget, a Hope for Peace Monument, encasing ...

Why I Believe

June 2019

Early in his pilgrimage, the literary monk Thomas Merton wrote, “Very soon we get to the point where we simply say, ‘I believe’ or ‘I refuse to believe.’” Faith runs hot and cold over time, offering up reasons both to believe and disbelieve. It did not surprise Jesus in the least that some would disbelieve him, regardless of evidence. He had predicted as much: “they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.” It does not surprise ...

The Second Mountain

May 2019

Have I ever experienced a day more “head-twisting” than last Thursday in Denver? It began with a gathering at Denver’s snazzy Convention Center. I had agreed to host a forum with sixty business leaders before the Colorado Prayer Luncheon, but as a freelancer with precious little business experience, I had to search for something worth discussing. Fortunately, I had just read the new book by New York Times columnist David Brooks, The Second Mountain. Brooks describes the journey on which ...

Easter at Columbine

April 2019

I spent Easter weekend participating in events commemorating the 20th anniversary of the shootings at Columbine High School, which sits twenty miles from my home. Tension filled the air around Denver as the anniversary approached. Half a million students were kept home from school as the FBI and local law enforcement searched for a young woman who, infatuated with Columbine, flew in from Florida and bought a pump-action shotgun and ammunition, sparking fears of another incident. The mass murder at ...

What Makes Friday Good?

March 2019

Along with most Christians, I have been reflecting on the death of Jesus this Lenten season. How odd, it seems, that we now call the darkest day of history Good Friday, and that the cross, an emblem of brutal execution, has become the symbol of our faith. By way of explanation, theologians propose various theories of the atonement, and point ahead to Easter as a template of how God redeems tragedy into triumph. Something else, however, captures my interest this ...