For the first time in a year, this weekend my wife and I will be back in a movie theater to see the new release, Ordinary Angels. Just as Kelsey Grammar lent star power to the last theatrical release we saw, Jesus Revolution, Hilary Swank plays the lead role. And, like Jesus Revolution, this film…
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Since the news appeared during the recent holiday season, many people may have missed the story about the demise of U.S. newspapers. A report in Axios said the decline accelerated so rapidly last year that by the end of 2024 the nation will have lost a third of the newspapers it had in 2005. Originally,…
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I heard the story on our car radio during a recent road trip: nearly 60% of Americans think money can buy happiness. They even put a price tag on it: $1.2 million. Later at home, I looked up the study by the financial services firm that served as the source for the CNBC report. It…
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I recently attended a memorial service for a friend, a woman whom I would describe as a sparkplug. Linda had been a teacher, community leader, choir director, church member, and entrepreneur who maintained a positive outlook no matter what the situation. What a legacy! She had moved south to Florida to live with family a…
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Even though it had been around for quite a while, I only recently heard the term “deepfakes.” The recent college graduate who introduced me to it explained it refers to phony videos or other graphic creations of people, places or events that don’t exist. Sadly, in the age of rapidly advancing Artificial Intelligence, I fear…
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Forgiveness is a trait many of us applaud and agree we all need to extend to others. That is, until we must actually do it. That’s why the recent story of a New England pastor who forgave the drunk driver that smashed into his family’s car moved me so powerfully. Not just because Terry Dorsett…
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I’m not a Swiftie. Never have been and don’t expect to become one. Were I to go around singing Taylor Swift music or paying a king’s ransom to attend one of her concerts, my grandchildren would say, “Act your age, old man.” Still, I did read the recent cover story on her in Time magazine.…
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I worked once on a story about church life for a ministry-oriented magazine. Though not focused on megachurches, I needed to talk with a couple people who had stopped attending one. Though it took awhile to connect, when I did one of them made a comment that struck me as odd: “I’m not even sure…
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Earlier this year, a fellow freelancer told me he had passed along my name to a publisher looking for editing help. Before the publisher and I talked, I looked over the organization’s website and liked what I saw. In our conversation, I learned the job was strictly editing: condensing material from transcribed interviews and adding…
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In mid-2021, I reconnected with a friend who had briefly been a coworker. Although we had stayed in touch over the years, mostly via email, our contacts were sporadic. That is, until he emailed me to relate his cancer diagnosis and imminent kidney removal. Not only did I start praying for Dave regularly, we began…
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