One of the first questions I ask when I think about donating to a particular charity is what their overhead is – that is, how much money the spend on personnel and marketing and everything else it takes to administer their relief efforts. This kind of information is readily available and I use it to determine a sense of the charity’s efficiency – the lower the overhead, the more money goes directly to the recipients of the aid I and others give. Of course I assume the reverse is true as well: the higher the overhead the more wasteful the charity is and less deserving of my support. In this provocative TED Talk based on his book...
Luke 23:36-38
posted by DJL
The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” There was also an inscription over him, “This is the King of the Jews.” It’s interesting, if not surprising upon reflection, that each of the groups that...
Leadership and the Preferred Future
posted by DJL
Leadership is about the future. It’s that simple…and that difficult. Max DePree began his influential and elegant little book, Leadership Is an Art, by saying that “The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality” (11). I would suggest that the most important element of the reality to be defined is the future. What future do you imagine? What future are you hoping for, working toward, dreaming of? The future matters so much simply because it defines the present. A friend of mine – who is a remarkably capable pastoral leader – shares the same story each time she meets with a new group of people in her congregation. There...
Luke 23:33-35
posted by DJL
When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. [Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”] And they cast lots to divide his clothing. And the people stood...
Who Was St. Patrick?
posted by DJL
Yes, St. Patrick’s Day was yesterday, but since I don’t normally post on Sundays, I’m running a day late with my brief homage to St. Patrick. Toward rectifying that, I’m posting a brief video from the History Channel and then a graphic (also from HC) that captures St. Patrick’s...
Luke 23:34a
posted by DJL
[Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”] More brackets. Just to refresh our memory: brackets indicate that a particular verse or even set of verses are not found in the earliest fragments of the gospel that we have, but were contained in later...
For The Time Being
posted by DJL
W. H. Auden’s long narrative poem “For the Time Being” is subtitled “A Christmas Oratio” because it focuses on the birth of Christ. But I’ve always thought it reads better after Christmas, sometime during the long winter that stretches into February (or, if you live in Minnesota,...
Luke 23:33
posted by DJL
When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. And all of a sudden it’s over. All the build up, all the drama, all the suspense is over in just one sentence: “When they came to the place that is...
Request for Prayer
posted by DJL
We’ve talked a lot about prayer in recent weeks on this space. I learned a lot from those conversations and am grateful for them. One of the things I learned, and continue to learn, frankly, is that it’s important not just to pray, but also to ask others to pray for you, as by honoring...
Luke 23:32
posted by DJL
Two others also, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him. It’s another small detail, I know, but again I think very important. Jesus is led away with two others, both criminals, and he will be put to death with them. Why does this matter? Because Jesus, the one we...
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