In Gennesaret

They seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right. Ouch. Thus sayeth the Lord through Isaiah in chapter 58. He’s raking Israel over the coals for their false religion. They put on their righteous faces and do all the “right things”. In particular, here, fasting is the hot topic. “Why have we fasted and you have not seen it?” the people are asking. Why aren’t you paying attention to us when we’re such good, religious people? But the Lord lays to rest their righteous notions. They aren’t good people. “Is this the kind of fast I have chosen?” he asks. Just a day for you to look and act all humble and show off your righteousness? But in the same breath, you take advantage of people and quarrel and fight? You’re missing the point here, folks. THIS is what I have in mind for your “fasting”, he tells them: To loose the chains of injustice                And untie the cords of the yoke,...

Fourteen years ago, a couple of dudes who were frustrated at the cost of razors got this wild idea to start a business shipping monthly supplies of shaving products to men in their homes. They ended up selling the business five years later for a billion dollars. That's billion. With a "B". We love those stories, don’t we? The big risk that paid off. Netflix moving from DVD rentals to streaming services and shifting the paradigm entirely. The two Steves starting Apple in their garage – and then Apple changing the world with a phone that could browse the internet. But for every success story, you know there have to be dozens of failures – big risks that did NOT pay off. And probably a lot of them were great ideas! But for whatever reason, they just didn’t take off like the iphone and streaming and razors in your mailbox every month. I was reminded of this recently thinking of the adventures my youngest has had living in Atlanta. She has gotten involved with a few ventur...

Jonah was a pretty sorry excuse for a prophet, y’all. That man failed in so many ways. I mean, let’s take a look at that story in the Old Testament book that bears his name. From what we read there in the first few verses, I think it’s a safe assumption that Jonah was someone with a significant relationship with God – significant enough that God used him to speak to others because it is stated rather matter-of-factly that God told Jonah to go deliver a message to the Ninevites, as if this was not an unusual exchange between them. Apparently, the man was familiar enough with God’s voice to recognize it when he heard it. But he didn’t go. And it’s not like he just sat at home and ignored that familiar voice; he ran away . He purposefully moved in the opposition direction because, as he tells the Lord later, he didn’t want to give his enemies a chance to receive mercy from God. Thus the infamous fish story that you can read in chapters 1 and 2. Do you notice, by the way, that when J...

I’ve been considering for a couple days whether I should submit my latest play for publication. I have a couple of plays published already, which is kind of cool. They don’t get produced much, so I get very little income from that, unfortunately. I am happy that the scripts are out there getting used rather than sitting in silence on my laptop. But still – a bit more income would be very much appreciated right now. There is a fantastic playwright in Austin named Don Zolidis. I’m familiar with him because my theater won a prize at a conference a few years ago, and he wrote a play for us, which I ended up directing. He’s an amazing playwright. He has hundreds of plays out there that are very popular and performed all over the world. I follow him on Facebook, so I always hear about his latest publication and his many successes. And I get a bit jealous. I mean, the man deserves his success – he’s incredibly talented and works very hard. But you know, I think what I write is pretty goo...

I just finished watching a series called Inventing Anna . Who’s heard of that one? Fascinating story – based on the real-life drama of a young woman who convinced people she was a German heiress and conned friends and banks and such out of thousands and thousands of dollars. This woman was staying in the most expensive hotels . . . eating at the best restaurants . . . wearing top quality designer clothes . . . attending the most exclusive of social events . . . traveling all around the world, flying first class. And somehow managed to do it all without paying for any of it. The lifestyle she was living was absolutely crazy. And even crazier, I realized as I watched that I didn’t find it appealing in the least. I mean, NOT AT ALL. I’ve thought the same thing watching some episodes of Rich Kids Go Skint , a British reality show where spoiled young adults raised in ridiculous wealth spend a weekend with a family “living on the breadline.” They start each episode giving you a taste...

Many, many years ago, I had an online conversation about abortion with an old high school friend. She had worked with George Tiller, a well-known abortion doctor in our hometown who was murdered by an anti-abortion extremist, so this was a subject of passion for her. To her credit, she initiated the exchange; she’d seen posts I’d made about my pro-life beliefs, believed I was honest and thoughtful about those beliefs (which I took as a great compliment), and wanted a genuine discussion with “the other side”. It was a fascinating conversation . . . mainly because of how much we found we agreed on. Yes, folks – when it came right down to it, we agreed on so much! We pondered together why each of our respective camps in this debate ended up so far in the extreme. She blamed it on that fear that giving an inch would sacrifice a mile. For example, even though she (and many of her colleagues) might personally have been okay with abortions only being allowed very early in a pregnancy, they...

I saw a PA in my doctor’s office a few weeks ago about pain in my arm. He said it’s “texter’s elbow” (once more commonly known as “tennis elbow”) and prescribed me a whole bunch of meds and exercises and a band to wear on my arm, and he gave me his absolute assurance that this would go away. “It always does,” he said. Many of my friends have had the same malady and shared their own doctor’s advice – different exercises and massages and medicinal cocktails. "This made mine go away." "This took care of my pain immediately." But I was back at the doctor’s office last week because my arm was still hurting. This time, I saw a different PA . . . and he had a different story. Some of those exercises may help; some of them make it worse. If the band seems to be doing some good, okay; if not, stop wearing it. And actually, this pain may come and go for months; don’t expect it to go away completely for good. Sigh. I also saw a different doctor last week at Dr. Drake’s S...