Jitterbugging for Jesus

Robert Hilburn was pop music critic for the Los Angeles Times for 35 years, from the psychedelic era to the emergence of the iPod. He witnessed many of rock ‘n’ roll’s seminal moments and interviewed virtually every major pop figure of the period. All of this is chronicled in his memoir, “Corn Flakes with John [...]

Read Full Post »

Yes, jitterbugger’s been under the mostly rainy weather we’ve had in Dallas this week, but starting to come back to life thanks to the miracle of antibiotics the size of horse pills.
Not only that, my high-dollar laptop with all the bells and whistles has failed me, again, which crimps my blogging style. But we’ll be [...]

Read Full Post »

The old saying has it that laughter is the best medicine, and we all know it’s true. Laughter is one of the greatest of all the gifts of God. It lifts us higher when we’re up and can relieve our pain when we’re down
But an equally potent life tonic is music. Sweet music.
The Bible contains [...]

Read Full Post »

From A Tree Full of Angels: Seeing the Holy in the Ordinary, by Benedictine Sister Macrina Wiederkehr, St Scholastica Convent, Fort Smith, Ark:
If you, O Lord, should remember our guilt, Lord, who could survive?
(Ps. 130: 3, my paraphrase)
Today I made a list of all the evils in my life that I would [...]

Read Full Post »

For Goldie, out among the stars:
<

Read Full Post »

The Hallgrímskirkja, literally, the church of Hallgrímur, is a Lutheran parish church in Reykjavík, Iceland. At 74.5 metres (244 ft), it is the largest church in Iceland and the fourth tallest architectural structure in Iceland
The church’s unusual design is supposed to represent volcanic columns rising between the steeple tower – a reference to Iceland’s many [...]

Read Full Post »

I learned many decades ago when, in my first life as a working-slug street reporter, I did weeks of research for a magazine article about homeless people living in cardboard boxes on the sidewalks in downtown Bryan, Texas. I learned that homelessness can be the result of a lot of little setbacks that have a [...]

Read Full Post »

Yes, we Methodists like our pumpkin pie. Check out this blurb from United Methodist News Service:
A UMNS Feature
By Kathy L. Gilbert*
Oct. 27, 2009
What’s orange and round, grows on the ground and for one month a year is worth a few million bucks?
If you live near a United Methodist church that turns into a Halloween wonderland [...]

Read Full Post »

Watching some daytime teevee this afternoon–what else you gonna do in sick bay?–and I have to ask: what’s not to love about Ellen. She’s cute and funny and generous and charitable and has stood up to vicious attacks with grace (remember when Jerry Falwell referred to her as “Ellen Degenerate”?).
And watching her dance is to [...]

Read Full Post »

Below is an excerpt from Richard J. Foster’s book Freedom of Simplicity, complete with quotes from the earliest Christian documents outside of the Bible. You’ll see that those who kept the Christian faith and the church going left us this legacy of putting faith into serious action in a world that was hostile to [...]

Read Full Post »