A large contingent of women walked down Market Street in Pittsburgh arm-in-arm in 1873. They stopped at Sheffner's Saloon, but the saloonkeeper refused them entrance. The women circled at the curb, sang a hymn, and were led in prayer by a woman...
Near the end of Ignatius of Loyola's (1491-1556) Spiritual Exercises is a section titled "Some Thoughts Concerning Scruples." Scruple was a term Ignatius used to describe an excessive obsession or compulsion. He likened scrupulosity to becoming...
Lillian Thrasher (1887-1961) came to Egypt in 1910, convinced that God was directing her to serve in some mission capacity. An Egyptian man asked her to visit a dying woman. This poor dying woman received her visit and begged Lillian to care for...
T. S. Eliot concluded his poem Four Quartets with the memorable words: "And all...
Edward Grim visited Canterbury Cathedral in England on December 29, 1170. During evening vespers, four knights interrupted the service, looking for Thomas Becket (1120-1170) (later to be called "a Becket"). "Where is this Thomas Becket, traitor to...
People have strong music preferences. I watch the drama play out in churches in real-time. Some people are passionate about traditional music, while others are equally fervent about contemporary music. The same was true in sixteenth century...
It had been seven years since Okuhhatuh (O-kuh-ha-tah) or Making Medicine (1848-1931) had been with his Cheyenne people in Oklahoma. His fellow warriors had vivid memories of Making Medicine, leading them in battle to retaliate for white settlers...
In terms of the longest wait for posthumous recognition, perhaps the seventeenth century poet Thomas Traherne (1636-1674) wins the prize. He was virtually forgotten for two hundred years. Not much is known about him. He was the son of a shoemaker....
Here's a quote worth pondering: "Be yourself. Everyone else is taken." While it's commonly attributed to Oscar Wilde, no one is quite sure where the quote originates. The Psalmist expresses a similar sentiment, "I praise you, Lord, for I am...
When I was a pastoral newbie in the 1970s, the cathartic approach to anger was all the rage. The let-it-all-out method of venting anger was in vogue and counselors even created "rage rooms" so clients could blow off steam. Recent research has...
I've been reading the Old Testament book of Isaiah. There are parts of Isaiah I like, and sections I don't like. The prophet Isaiah doesn't hold back with judgment when God's people make a mess of things. As I came to Isaiah 33, I thought to...
I still possess a copy of the first sermon I preached when I was called to the pastorate. What strikes me as I reread it is my strong desire to be liked. While I tried to faithfully interpret Matthew 28, I cannot lie: I desperately wanted people to...
Psychiatrist and holocaust survivor Victor Frankl wrote a groundbreaking book in 1946, Man's Search for Meaning, referencing Frederich Nietzsche's quote, "He who has a why can bear with almost any how."What Prudence Randall (1803-1890) did in the...
Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet (1787-1851) was a twenty-eight-year-old seminary graduate waiting "for some decided indication of Providence as to the place of duty." While visiting a neighbor, Dr. Cogswell, near his home in Hartford, Thomas observed the...
Lindisfarne is an island off the northeast coast of England. Most of its one hundred eighty permanent residents are employed in the fishing industry. The town has three pubs, a post office, and one hotel. A single causeway connects the island to...
John Jea was born in Africa in 1773. He, with his parents and siblings, were kidnapped by slave traders, transported to America, and sold to enslavers in New York City. John was not yet three years old. The family was purchased by a Dutch couple,...
Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) wrote in her diary on February 7, 1837, "God spoke to me and called me into his service." She was not yet seventeen, living on a luxurious 1,300-acre estate in England. Years later, it became clear that her calling...
Robert C. Lawson (1883-1961) was orphaned at a young age and raised by an aunt and left home as a teenager to become a nightclub singer. He abandoned his Christian roots and adopted a pleasure-seeking lifestyle. At age thirty, he contracted...