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Most people have not been inside a jail. It’s not a place that anyone in their right mind wants to be. Yet, jails are filling up and new ones can’t be built fast enough. Local, state, and federal penal systems are strained beyond capacity, and they struggle for increases in their budgets to meet the demands placed upon their institutions.
It seems like no matter where you look, scenes of crime, war, insanity, and brutality might make the days feel gloomy and cloudy. You may even wonder: Will there ever be a time when things will get better?
It seems that when opportunity knocks, many don’t recognize it, because it is disguised as work. Some think that opportunity is actually “luck.” Yet, this “luck” seems to follow those who work hard, fulfilling their obligations and commitments. With the workplace in transition because of modern methods, new technology, and changing markets, many fail to keep up...
Does it seem like hatred and divisiveness in society have grown to disturbing levels in recent years? We see hatred and hateful attitudes not only in conflicts and wars between nations, but also in politics, in rhetoric, in censorship, and in murderous chants by angry demonstrators. Has the “love of many” truly grown cold, as Jesus Christ predicted in the Bible...
Christmas is perhaps the most popular holiday in the world. People from a variety of perspectives and societies—from the devoutly religious who cry, “put Christ back in Christmas,” to famous atheists like Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris—participate in some form of Christmas celebrations. With Christmas rapidly approaching, let’s make what some may consider a...
We have all used various kinds of guides, whether a tour guide in a museum or historic site, a guide in a national park wilderness area, an education or career guidance counselor, or even a GPS helping us to our destination in the city or country. We especially need a guide through the wilderness of spiritual deception in the world today.
When Philip asked a man...
Many have been watching the news of the war between Israel and Hamas with concern and anxiety. News reports the threat of greater wars, hatred, violence, and rampant crime. Drugs, the demise of morality, economic woes, and political stalemate also weigh on our minds. What can we do? Where can we go for safety?
Since the depraved and unspeakably inhuman massacre...
In 1965, popular singer and actor Frank Sinatra had a hit song featured in the play Guys and Dolls. The song contained this lyric: “If you’ve ever been a lady to begin with, Luck, be a lady tonight!” It was a musical appeal to allow the singer to be a winner in a game of chance and in the “game” of life. Reliance on luck or good fortune is an ancient belief...
Not long ago, I attended an emotional family funeral and burial. It took place in a large Pennsylvania cemetery that contained graves going back to the 1700s. The cemetery’s website explained that the oldest legible tombstone dated to 1764, almost 260 years ago. Walking through that old cemetery made me think, Many people have been in these graves for over 200...
Sometimes, we can look at a thing and not truly “see” it for what it is, from every angle. Our approach to life with its joys, trials, and challenges often depends upon our perceptions of something—how we choose to see—in any given situation. An analogy that seems to fit this human proclivity is how one looks at a diamond, the rarest of precious stones.