Winter seems to isolate everything; perhaps it is the cold, the sparse landscape, or the limited movements of our very bodies that make us dull and often despair. Melancholy has always been one of the basic themes of cold culture's literature. The cold can also make us more introspective. Maybe ...

I am currently reading The Rise of Christianity by Rodney Stark. The book was originally published in 1996 by the Princeton Press. Dr. Stark was a professor of Sociology and Comparative Religion. It is a book about Christianity, but not from a religious or scriptural point of view, but from a ...

There is so much going on in our current times that we sometimes forget what the core values are in our fast-paced lives. One thing I have noticed in recent culture is the use of media and communication to drive us to become consumers. Consumers of social media and trending culture, with the ...

Recently, I got a dog. I went to the breeder’s house on a whim, never expecting to really buy a puppy. I must have been bored that day. However, within a few minutes of my arrival at the place where the puppies were, I found myself handed a black fur ball that was shaking. Two mournful eyes ...

We are about to start another year. Years are interesting markers in our lives. Like a ruler or a physical gauge, they measure. The solemn tramp of days, mornings, and sunsets. What are they measuring? They sometimes mark, with indelible ink, the story of our lives. Time is what we are given ...

We are in the middle of Advent. Most Christian churches observe four weeks before Christmas, a period of introspection and prayer to prepare for the birth of Christ on Christmas Day. The season in the church is known as Advent. The word itself comes from the Latin and means “arriving” or ...