“May your days be merry and bright.”  That’s not a problem for me during this season.  I love everything about it: the decorations, the music, the movies, the cooler weather, the family traditions. I think strangers are even friendlier to one another when they pass on the street, exchanging a chipper “good morning” on a cool, brisk day.  

    But to some, this is not “the most wonderful time of the year.”  The Holiday Blues are real.  They usher in periods of pain, sadness, and even depression.  While I’m enjoying a predictable plot on some Hallmark movie, another might…

    Over the course of my lifetime wartime conflicts have taken place, mostly in the Middle East and Africa. Even now there is again another war going on in the Middle East region.  It is very hard to ignore exactly what is happening and what drives these wars, particularly in the Middle East.  Both sides of the current conflict look to spiritual issues as their driving force, just as we Christians should do in regards to our everyday life.  Mark 9:50 tells us to “be at peace with one another.”  Is that our attitude as we live here in our…

    Galatians 6:2 reads, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”  The dictionary defines “burden” as “something carried, often too heavy to carry easily - a load of things, work, duty, financial cares, worries, sorrows”.  Certainly, the scripture calls the Christian to care for the physical needs and burdens of our fellow man and brethren.  Consider, for example, the story of the “Good Samaritan” or perhaps Jesus’ description in Matthew 25: 31-44 of the final judgment where the deciding factors for eternal life versus damnation revolved around how we cared for the physical needs of others…