It’s Friday, the end of a long week, and time for a mental health break and a little humor via Ellen Degeneres and a video of the reaction of a four-year old to the news that he would soon have another new sibling. After watching the first video, including Ellen’s interview with him, you can also watch when Ellen shares a surprise with him and is mom. Heart-warming indeed! Have a great weekend!     If you are receiving this post by email, you may need to click the title at the top of the post in order to watch the...

At first, I wasn’t sure whether to put this under preaching, or maybe worship, since that’s the ostensible subject matter, or humor. But of course it is about humor, both 1) the effective use of humor to make fun of ourselves and our world and invite us thereby to imagine different possibilities and 2) what can go happen when the joke goes awry. Sometimes humor fails because it’s not done well – a poorly told joke or ill-timed punch line. Sometimes it fails because the hearer doesn’t have enough context to make sense of it – the “you had to be there” humorous stories usually fall into this category. And sometimes it fails...

Humor – particularly the ability to laugh at one’s own faults, foibles and circumstances – combined with determination is a powerful combination. I found this TED Talk amazing because comedian, actor, writer, philanthropist, and advocate Maysoon Zayid is just that: this unstoppable force of humor and determination. I won’t say much more, because I don’t want to spoil your fun. But I can almost guarantee that you will enjoy — and inspired by — her 14 minutes of candor, humor, and unquenchable spirit. Note: If you are receiving this post by email, you may need to click the title at the top of the post to watch the...

I can’t believe I forgot to post this on April Fools’ Day earlier this week! If I had remembered, I would have described this as our latest and greatest strategy for improving the teaching at Luther Seminary through consistent classroom assessment. But I since I blew it, I’ll just tell you ahead of time that this is the video some colleagues and I put together for our annual Variety Show at Luther. Given what a mess things are here right now, it seemed like a good time to make fun of ourselves. And given my earlier note on gratitude for good friends (#6), this seems like the second best day of the week on which to post it....