As a pastor, I have no problem with people putting $100 bills into the offering. Except when they’re fake. Like this one. When we deposited the church funds, the bank machine wouldn’t accept this bill. I thought it was because it was wrinkled or folded at the end. The machine wouldn’t accept a smoothed-out bill either. I brought it to a banker, who required all of five seconds to determine it was counterfeit. The banker kindly said things like, “Look at the color…the paper…the lack of fine wavy lines…the sharpness of image…even the size is 1/16 inch too large all around.”…
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Are you thankful for Christmas? Or are you thankful it’s over? I’ve been asking that question and found a correlation: On one hand: The more we get caught up in or feel pressured to buy presents, put up decorations, or perform Christmas-related activities like feasts and card sending, the more thankful we are when it’s over. (Some of us enjoy these things, and the rest of us are blessed to receive. I’m just talking about those who feel caught up or pressured.) On the other hand: The more we choose to ignore what pressures us and instead keep things simple…
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When someone I care for is deeply hurt: I feel their pain with them. I feel burning anger. I weep from the depth of my gut. I speak encouragement at some points, and keep my mouth shut at others. I hug—a lot, whether in person or in my heart. And we do not need to hear the bumper-sticker platitude that “Everything has a purpose.” If that’s true, some things have an evil purpose, authored by the devil. And other things happen out of human fallenness, chance, heredity, or laws of physics. And a few things we just don’t understand until…
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I’m standing on the ruins of an ancient civilization. In northeast Arizona. Artifacts found at more than 1000 sites in the surrounding area demonstrate that people lived here for more than 13,000 years. Archeologists call it a “persistent place,” a location where repeated human activity continues through time. But today no one lives here. It is a desolate grassland. The village stood next to the Puerco River that at the time served as a travel corridor to many people living all along the river. Surrounding the village would have been fields of corn, beans, and squash. The people scratched petroglyphs on the rocks,…
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I’m at a restaurant in Philadelphia, so of course I have to order a Philly cheesesteak sandwich. Hot and tasty, it’s the best Philly cheesesteak sandwich I have ever had. Then my friend realizes we’re in a vegan restaurant. Vegan? As in no meat, no dairy? Yup. The cheesesteak I think I’m chewing is really seitan, a wheat gluten-based meat substitute. What? A fake sandwich. But… But… Even though it’s fake, it’s still the best Philly cheesesteak sandwich I’ve ever eaten! This amazes me because even after I learn that my sandwich is made of fake meat, I do not care that it’s…
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