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A driver used her GPS to find her destination. Unfortunately, the GPS remained silent. Left to her own sense of direction, the driver found her destination. Slowing the car to park at her desired spot, she heard the GPS exclaim gleefully, “You are here!” April has arrived. No fooling! Suddenly we find ourselves “here.”  March…

The prophet Isaiah puts these words in the mouth of God: “For I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and its people to be a delight.” God would have felt the same when we were created—and everyone else was created. Yes, God made the person who annoys us a joy. God made the ones who…

On any day of the year I can find dust or spots to clean, so why do I wait for spring cleaning? It must be the sunshine that gets me in the mood, yet it’s the sunshine that reveals the most dust motes. I’d save time cleaning if I waited for a dark day. Yet…

Right around Ash Wednesday my youngest sister introduced me to Wordle. Because she plays it daily, I thought I would join her. After all, it’s a sisterly thing to do and a great way to keep in touch. She’s quite good at it, but she doesn’t brag.  Instead, she sends an “innocuous” sentence that has…

Oxymorons are fun. Who has not been “clearly misunderstood”? Who has not tasted something “awfully good”? Matching oxymorons with Lent may be “true fiction.” But let  me remind you that the most significant oxymoron, the one on which we base our faith and our eternal salvation is “life-giving death.” The Paschal Mystery—Christ’s death and resurrection—is…

We’ve all had the opportunity to ask ourselves, “Now what should I do?” Perhaps it was a time of transition like job loss or retirement. Maybe the question followed a problem. In the well-known gospel story, we hear a rich young man ask, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? I’ve already…

“Oh, the possibilities!” sounds like a phrase from a Dr. Seuss book. But it also characterizes who we will be in heaven.  Maria von Trapp wrote: “We shall remain the individuals we have been here on earth, but the possibilities which were created into us shall now find fulfillment.” We have a lifetime to reach…

My dad bent steel with mathematical precision for the amusement park rides at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio. That was his full-time employment, yet I tended to think of him as a farmer. While I never went into the steel factory, I could see him daily working in the fields or barn of our small…

It is my privilege to write our sisters’ obituaries. Fortunately, I am supplied with many statistics: names of family members, dates of birth and religious profession, years and places in active ministry, and perhaps a newspaper article or two announcing achievements or awards. Invariably I am surprised by the information I never knew about the…

I was riding in the passenger seat of a hearse when the funeral director asked me, “What do you like best about your job?” We had just left a cemetery where I led a prayer for a person who had no relatives or friends. My answer was quick in coming: “The split second when family…