I took this picture just a few moments ago. It’s the view from the porch of a summer cottage that’s been in our family for more than a hundred years. Our cabin, named Ogontz by my forebears generations ago, looks over Lake Otsego, a nine-mile long lake in mid-state NY that ends (or starts, depending on your point of view) at Cooperstown, NY. Long before Cooperstown was known for the Baseball Hall of Fame (which I’ve gone to a dozen times, though almost always when taking visiting guests to the museum), it was home to the stories of James Fenimore Cooper, one of the earliest America novelists. The town was named for...

“You can do this yourself.” These were the five words I most disliked hearing from my parents. Oh, I know, you can probably think of five worse words to hear. But these words meant that something I had asked them to do for me got turned around into something I had to do for myself. And that, obviously, wasn’t what I wanted. If I had wanted to do it myself, I wouldn’t have asked them to do it in the first place! Like calling a coach to ask why I wasn’t playing as much as I thought I should be. Or settling an argument with a sibling. Or asking someone for a job. The very point of my asking is that these were things that...

I have this theory, maybe you agree: a lot of our relationships – at home, work, school, and more – would improve, and a lot more would be accomplished, and a lot less misunderstanding would occur, and a lot more people would feel valued… if we spent more time listening to each other and less time talking. And not just passive listening where we nod our heads while thinking of what we will say next, but active, interested listening where we believe – and more importantly act – as if what the person speaking with us is saying really matters and that, by extension, that person really matters. If you agree –...

Dear Partner in Preaching, Do me a favor and resist the pedestrian temptation to call Jesus’ feeding of the five thousand a miracle. It’s not that I don’t understand the appeal of describing this event as a miracle – it’s in all four gospels and all that – or that it’s technically inaccurate – what Jesus does is rather wondrous. But I nevertheless worry that by drawing attention to Jesus’ act of feeding these crowds we actually may actually overlook the more significant miracles that take place in the story Matthew narrates. Here’s the thing: while we may debate whether Jesus suspended the...