Shrove Monday, celebrated on the Monday before Ash Wednesday, marks the beginning of the Lent season for many Christians. Shrove Monday, also known as Collop Monday, after the traditional breakfast meal eaten on the day. Collops are strips of leftover meat - usually bacon. The meat is eaten along with eggs.
Tagged holidaysOne of my children made a statement last year that speaks loudly of our modern outlook on spirituality. The exact subject of the conversation is now forgotten but one statement sticks in my mind. “But Dad,” my son said, “you can’t think about God all the time!” This is a child who has been raised [...]
Tagged meditation, prayerAn Experiment in Living Biblically
AJ Jacobs, editor at Esquire Magazine, enjoys conducting radical lifestyle experiments and subsequently writing about his experiments. Jacobs’s previous lifestyle experiments include:
Radical Honesty - Jacobs practiced only telling the truth and candidly recounts his experiences afterward
Reading the entire Encyclopedia Britannica - Jacobs read all 33,000 pages of the encyclopedia and published [...]
Today, September 21, 2007, should be a day of celebration in my family. Today is my brother’s 30th birthday, but Jonathan David Witham died in my mother’s womb before he was born. Today should be a day of celebration rather than a day of grieving.
Today we mourn, grieve, and wonder what could have been - [...]
Suffering is never a fun topic to discuss. Let’s face it, there are more exciting things to talk about than suffering, grief, heartache and hardship. Unfortunately, suffering is something we all face at some time. The sad reality is that most of us are unprepared for suffering when we encounter it.
I do not have all [...]
Illegal Immigration
Illegal immigration is a hot topic in American news and politics. It seems that every politician has a theory of sorts but none seem able to solve the problem. Most Christians seem to have an opinion about illegal immigration too.
There are, of course, two facets of illegal immigration:
Foreign nationals still attempting to enter the [...]
I was born in the choir loft as the old saying goes. My father is a pastor as is his father before him. I was in church on my first Sunday after being born and was dedicated and raised in church. Growing up I attended Sunday School, Sunday morning services, Sunday evening services, Wednesday evening [...]
Americans are facing a looming elder care crisis. With increasing average lifespans and a decreasing workforce we are fast facing the insolvency of social security and medicare. Politicians argue about how to fix social programs but offer no real insight to the problem and make no real progress. However this situation turns out it is [...]