A couple of times a year I follow the example of Jesus and retreat from people to engage in a couple of days of isolation, fasting, prayer and work. My dog usually travels with me on these occasions, and on this particular trip I was accompanied by my golden retriever...

Some years ago we were on vacation and riding home after a dinner out at the beach when my daughter Clara looked at her phone and exclaimed, “Robin Williams has died. He apparently committed suicide.” Such news sparked a spirited family conversation, all of us...

Years ago, the writer Ernest Hemmingway came across a newspaper ad that in his opinion formed a perfect, if piercingly sad, six-word short-story. The notice read: “Free baby shoes. Never been used.” There is a similarly sad short story in the New Testament concerning...

September 11, 2001 seared the American soul. Images once reserved for big-budget Hollywood epics leaped from disaster film fantasy into horrific reality before our eyes, as commercial jets were misemployed as missiles to smash into twin towers that represented the...

Years ago. I received a note from a close friend that said, “When I’ve been around you lately you seem remote, distracted and so weary.” “Of course,” he added, “this could just be my reading of things. I could be wrong. But let’s grab a lunch and talk, so I can check...

I once was invited to address some of the rising stars of the legal profession in Charlotte, some of the best and brightest young attorneys recognized by their peers as poised for city leadership. I was challenged to identify the quality that would empower these...

One might entitle this passage, “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to a Miracle,” for our Lord’s focus was upon a young girl who was dying, the daughter of a prominent ruler of a synagogue. Jesus moves so resolutely to address the young girl in her extreme need that...

This homily was inspired by a valley. You may recall that a couple of weeks ago in my sermon “The Great Irony of Life,” I shared a revelatory moment that happened on a CBF Youth Passport Missions trip several years ago, which took place in Jacksonville, Florida. This...

The year was 1976, the month was March, and I was warming up on the track at Morehouse College, readying myself for the beginning of the collegiate outdoor track season. I noticed a tall, nerdy-looking black kid warming up along the backstretch, strutting along with...

At the height of her career, the late Lady Diana was considered one of the richest, most beautiful, most privileged and most admired women in the world. However, what the world didn’t know was that she was also bulimic, depressed, and failing in her attempt to rescue...