I’m always intrigued by how social media is shaping the way we make and share meaning. Usually, that takes the form of thinking about how various elements of social media or the larger digital culture can help us share the good news. But from time to time it’s also fun to “look back” and imagine what our forebears would have done with social media. Last year I found “The Digital Story of the Nativity” quite fun in that regard; this year it’s “A Social Network Christmas.” Without wanting to spoil too much, I think my favorite moment was when 23 people “unfriend” Joseph for...

There’s something about a cappella singing that is hard to beat, especially at Christmas. This rendition of A Little Drummer boy, by the 5-person group Pentatonix, is no exception. So amid all the shopping or sermon writing or decorating or baking or traveling, I hope you can find a few minutes to relax one of the favorite extra-biblical, yet still beautiful Christmas stories. (And if you’re a “Little Drummer Boy” fan, check out last’s year’s post on the Little Rockin’ Drummer Boy.) Notes: 1) If you are receiving this post by email, you may need to click here to watch the video. 2) Again thanks to...

Anyone who has read this blog for long knows that I’m a huge fan of Brené Brown. I love her work on the centrality of vulnerability to authentic living. So I was delighted to see on her blog that the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA for short) recently hosted Brené for a presentation and then illustrated a portion of her talk. RSA Animated Shorts are a delightful way to bring a concept or idea to life and invite us to see it differently. The portion illustrated below is about empathy. One of her key findings is that empathy – the willingness to go where someone else is living...

One year ago today, most of us listened with shock and disbelief as we heard the news of the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. And then came the grief. I remember vividly that once the news sank in I was nearly overwhelmed with this profound sense of sadness. Having just earlier dropped my kids at school and on my way home after running some errands, I had to pull over until I could calm down enough to drive again. Over and over again, I kept thinking that is was so many children. How could this possibly happen? In the days and weeks to come, similar outpourings of grief and sympathy flooded Newtown from...