By JIM NICHOLS Ordinarily, a trip to the grocery store before the sun came up would be unthinkable for me; I am a breakfast eater and I have difficulty functioning well before orange juice and cereal. However, these are not ordinary times. So, when the local market installed a twice a week 6-9 a.m. period reserved for (as the announcement
Read moreBy JIM NICHOLS Like many others, I have constructed a list of one-liners over the years. These are phrases or paragraphs that have spoken truths clearly and, often, in unexpected ways. I frequently have these on separate small pieces of paper and they have no particular relationship to one another except that, for some reason, they spoke to me at
Read moreBy JIM NICHOLS Anthropologist Adam P. Johnson has suggested an analogy concerning how students and, by implication, all humans change and grow. He suggests that during the baking of a cake the initial state is just a collection of ingredients in a bowl. If the ingredients are varied, the resulting cake will be different. Furthermore, the real magic occurs when
Read moreBy JIM NICHOLS What would your decision be should you be asked to participate or support some action with which you disagree? Not just a mild disagreement, but a serious, considered disagreement for which there seemed to be no second alternative. The term “conscientious objector” is most often connected to military service. There is a long and worldwide history of
Read moreBy JIM NICHOLS St. Francis of Assisi suggested that, when attempting to be God’s people to others, we should start with human suffering rather than human sinfulness. Have you ever made a hospital visit to a friend or relative and encountered a law enforcement officer sitting in a chair outside some room on the floor? Though not a common sight
Read moreBy JIM NICHOLS It was meant as a joke, but it causes grimaces when read. It said something like, “Before the internet, we thought the cause of stupidity was the lack of information. It wasn’t that.” Some of the major information technology companies such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Google are engaged in difficult decisions regarding the veracity of information
Read moreBy JIM NICHOLS It is reasonable to suspect that every occupation includes some unpleasant aspects. No matter what your job, some responsibilities or tasks are in the “do I really have to do that?” category. Most aspects of the job may be fulfilling and rewarding, but there are still a few that are taxing either to our skills or to
Read moreBy JIM NICHOLS A preacher friend of mine commented that he had read something that I had recently written. He said, “You and I must have been using the same sources; I said about the same thing in a sermon.” I was caught off guard a bit by the comment because, although I remembered my article, I could not remember
Read moreBy JIM NICHOLS Church policy arguments can be tedious. If you are a member of a church with a clear non-local hierarchy, you have an advantage of having leaders you may not even know make policy decisions for your local group. You may not agree with those decisions, but you do not have to lose much sleep trying to make
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Spirit Of Abilene 