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Should You Receive Special Treatment?
I was traveling back from a speaking engagement when I was upgraded to first class. That was my first experience in first class, and I imagine it’s my last. I won’t lie. It was nice having leg room and deferential service. And I just rolled my eyes when one of the last passengers to board …[ read more ]
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This One Brief Life We Have to Offer – Some Briefer Still
So, I’m thinking about my brother, John the Baptist – the fire burst of his young life and the tragic waste of his death at the order of a narcissist and his self-indulgent sister-in-law bedmate. And I’m listening to a speech by my brother Chadwick – the whirlwind power of his young life and the tragic waste of his death to a …[ read more ]
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O, Me, Of Little Faith
Lately I’ve been noticing the invisible people in Bible stories. Recently, it was a whole crowd who had previously managed to elude my view. Who were these people? These ones who came out to the wilderness to hear John the Baptist, to repent of their sins, and to be baptized? In all my years reading …[ read more ]
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Maybe You Can’t Handle the Truth
“I’ve read the story you sent me. It’s not good. Try another form of writing.” A literary agent sent that comment in response to my first attempt at fiction. “You don’t even know what you’re trying to say, Lori. Until you do, you shouldn’t try to get someone to publish you.” Words from one of the first …[ read more ]
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The First Thing You Notice about Pharisees
I have lately taken up the study of Pharisee watching. It started when a twenty-something gushed over advice I’d provided and referred to me as “wise” (old). It was further inspired when another staffer asked how old someone born in 1978 would be and the reply was forty. Forty? Really. Forty? I left high school …[ read more ]