Disclaimer: I have personally seen zero episodes of Dan Fogelman’s American television drama “This Is Us.” But a rabbi friend of mine named Ray is a big fan of the show, and he talks about it all the time. He recently told me about an episode where a father is perpetually telling his daughter how […]

You know those moments when you’re out to lunch with a friend at a Vietnamese restaurant and you get to talking about your compulsive tendencies of being defensive and combative, and then your friend reminds you of how an older, wiser, mutual friend is always harping on the vital importance of never defending yourself? Well […]

Clothes for Christmas. It happens every year. I’m not opposed to receiving clothes for Christmas (though I will candidly confess that I generally prefer Nerf products), however clothing often arouses a vain pestering pressure to become preoccupied with self-image. Cosmetic commodities and considerations can quickly devolve into fretful seasons of superficiality and self-absorption. For instance, […]

Fear of failure. That’s why men are so angry all the time. Men are constantly striving to protect themselves from being perceived as a failure. Why is dad so anal and OCD about stuff? Why is Mr. so and so always grumpy and grouchy? Why is he so critical and negative? Why is that guy jaded, […]

Of course there are various odds and ends to any and all callings and endeavors, and these sundry miscellaneous bits and pieces of the work week can be interesting in their own right …but what sort of Emphatic Pastoral Ponderings does the Holy Spirit have the parsons of ECPC working on these days? Pastor Ginn […]

As many of you know – I regularly partake of a publication called Critique. Please visit their website (click the word “Critique” in the previous sentence) and donate money to them so that I can keep receiving their publications cheap of charge. Why do I like Critique? I am lousy at unhurriedness, and the folks […]

Once upon a time there was a group of important, powerful, and well-groomed men who believed in Jesus, but for fear of pretentious religious performers – they hid their fascination and agreement with Jesus. They were “sensibly concerned” with the risks of being ostracized and shunned by the jury of their peers (for they loved […]

Have you ever heard of Hans Ur Von Balthasar? He was a Swiss rich kid educated k-12 by Benedictine monks and then did his higher-learning in Austria and Germany. Eventually Hans got involved in a Jesuit community in Deutschland (Jesuits were outlawed in Hans’ homeland until 1973 …I’m not precisely sure why the Swiss didn’t […]

What fuels “they argued with one another about who was the greatest” ? [Mk. 9:34] What’s the deal with our indignation and chronic discontentment with others – for basically being rampantly insecure and selfish just like us? [Mk. 10:41] How do we manage to daily deceive ourselves into believing that somehow our anger and insults […]