Just a quick thought for the day. Or really a question: Do you think happiness is a worthy goal? Or is it rather a by-product of other things? Ever since Thomas Jefferson, at least, we have been taught to think happiness is something we should pursue. But, I wonder, what is happiness, exactly? When do we know we’ve found it? How do we go about it? Noting that we are notoriously bad at predicting what will make us happy, it occurs to me that perhaps that’s because happiness isn’t, finally, something you can pursue and catch and possess. Rather, perhaps happiness is the by-product of worthy activities. Perhaps happiness is...

My heart going boom boom boom…. Yesterday official word began to circulate that the search committee at The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia has decided to recommend me to their Board as their candidate for the position of president at that fine school. It is my alma mater, and I have always felt a debt of gratitude to the seminary and my teachers there for the excellent education I received. I’m very excited about both the challenges and opportunities that will come with that position, and honored and humbled by the trust of the committee. As the plans now stand, I’ll be on the Philadelphia campus the 13th...

The artist, the educator and the therapist walk different paths in different ways, but those paths meet at an intersection where the street sign says: You must change your life.For we do not go to the artist, the educator or the therapist to remain the same; we go to them to be given the vision and the tools to go on, and to go on is always to change. ~Michael Ventura, “Teacher as Healer” I think Michael Ventura’s words could be applied to preachers as well, but I wonder if preachers sometimes forget. Preachers may worry, that is, not simply about what expectations people bring to their sermons, but in this age of declining...

Karl Barth on occasion referred to “secular parables,” cultural artifacts produced by non-Christians (or Christians not attempting to point directly to their faith) that nevertheless bore witness to the truth of the God we know best through Jesus. I love that phrase. Which is a little odd, as I’m not normally a huge fan of the sacred-secular distinction. Often that distinction is used in a way that feels to me very limiting and, moreover, I’ve often wondered just what is not sacred to the God who comes in Jesus to redeem in love. Be that as it may, I still love that phrase. Perhaps it’s because Barth, one of the most influential...