By JIM NICHOLS Mixing love of country with religion has been a common event throughout history. Seemingly, it seldom ends particularly well. Bible readers are familiar with the origins of Judaism and the torturous tale of the people of God searching for their own land. You can get lost rapidly trying to understand the historic diplomatic, military, and religious conflicts
Read moreBy JIM NICHOLS Everyone acknowledges that children are full of questions. In many ways, they are starting life knowing little of anything and they learn by asking questions as well as observation and, perhaps, imitation. They ask questions seeking answers; as adults, we also seek answers, but adult questions include some deeper possibilities. For those of us trying to follow
Read moreBy JIM NICHOLS Like many other children, I grew up with great appreciation for Halloween. What can be better for a child than to dress up in a costume of some sort, walk up to a stranger’s door, and they give you candy? For free! What a deal! I have lots of memories associated with Halloween and they are almost
Read moreBy JIM NICHOLS My editor has issued a caution to avoid writing anything that is too political. I will do my best, but note that I am presenting a testimonial here; you do not have to agree with it. It is mine. Two items have come together in my thinking. The first is the great story of Samuel choosing David
Read moreBy JIM NICHOLS Perhaps you have participated in the same exercise that some of my grandchildren have. They call it “glad about/sad about.” For them, this occurs as their parents are putting them to bed each night and the children are asked to reflect on their days as to what made them glad and what made them sad. This is
Read moreBy JIM NICHOLS As I was leaving for the office on a recent morning, I noticed two workmen-type individuals carefully walking across the front yard of my immediate neighbor. They seemed to be doing some measuring and placed small hot pink flags in the ground in a few places. Trying to look as if I were not watching, I attempted
Read moreBy JIM NICHOLS There is a subtitle for today’s contribution and that is “Avoiding a Place of Fear.” Once again, two back-to-back items appeared in my reading. One involved Dr. Francis Collins. Dr. Collins is what in the academic world is referred to as a “physician-scientist.” He has both an M.D. degree (qualifying him in the medical doctor world) and
Read moreBy JIM NICHOLS Once again I wish to take you into an area of my indecision and wondering. I hope I am not alone in having many more questions than solutions. Perhaps by writing some of this to you, it will help me think and clarify my thoughts. It happened again just this week. I was visiting with a hospice
Read moreBy JIM NICHOLS Early in my adult life, a wise person suggested a word to look for in scripture. You may have received the same instruction—it is almost trite, frankly—but it works for me. I suppose this word would be considered a conjunction, something that connects two thoughts. Used in scripture it relates one thought to a following one that
Read more
Spirit Of Abilene 