By JANICE SIX Vacation this year was a true get-away. No social media, no emails and limited use of the cell phone. I called it “Project Unplug” and for the month of June I was virtually off the grid. The thought of checking-out for a few weeks was appealing. It would be a return to the days when phones
Read moreBy DANNY MINTON Our first teachers in life are our parents. They teach us right and wrong, good and bad and how to act. We don’t always listen, but in our learning, we can at times learn a lesson not by their words but by their actions. This is the story of a young woman who took a lesson from
Read moreBy DANNY MINTON I recently posted that May 28th would have been our son Scottie’s 45th birthday. It’s been four years since he passed away suddenly. Kathy mentioned to some friends that she wished he was still here. One responded to her that she was being selfish to say that. I’m sure she meant good intentions, but it was very insensitive.
Read moreBy DANNY MINTON While I was attending college there was one boy, we’ll call him Joe, who pretty much everyone tried to avoid. He was a nice good looking kid but had difficulty keeping close friends. The problem was his feet. They smelled. Due to this problem, people didn’t like being around him both in class and socially. It was
Read moreBy JANICE SIX The Simpsons have been called on the carpet for the portrayal of the Indian-American character, Apu, who speaks with a thick Indian accent, and is less than ethical as the owner of the fictional Kwik-E-Mart, where he sells food long past its expiration date and rips off his customers. According to an article in the New York
Read moreBy JANICE SIX Easter morning, pastors will proclaim from pulpits all across this land, “He is risen!” and in response congregants will exclaim, “He is risen indeed!” Alleluias that have laid dormant since Ash Wednesday will arise in response to the magnificent brass, timpani drums, and voices united in song. As the congregation stands to sing “Christ the Lord is
Read moreBy DANNY MINTON Growing up in a small town, the big summer event was Little League baseball. As they reached the age of around 12, the boys in town would anticipate the summer when they would first be picked to play. Baseball was big in the ’50’s. In Plano, the boys would be anxiously waiting by the phone the Saturday the teams were
Read moreBy MIKE PATRICK Psalms of lament typically begin with gloom and end with gladness, sorrow ends with shouting, tears turn to triumph. However, Psalm 88 is the only Psalm that ends in gloom, that ends with a word of darkness. Famous theologian Walter Bruggemann says, “Psalm 88 is an embarrassment to conventional faith.” The psalmist’s lament reeks with honest misery,
Read moreBy JANICE SIX “What you do speaks so loudly, I can’t hear what you say.” This quote is a favorite of mine. It’s certainly not original to me. Most who occupy their time searching for the origin of quotes believe it to be a variation of a saying attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson in an essay published in 1895. The
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Spirit Of Abilene 