Friday Tidings

It started out as a girlfriend word game over coffee—trying to think of three-word sentences that we hear a lot. “I love you” topped all our lists. We had some fun: Just stop it. I gained weight. I hate that. My boss sucks. You did what? I got fired. Life is tough. She is cute. We laughed and then the conversation turned to kids, life’s struggles, and some of the victories along the way. As I drove home, I thought about some three-word sentences that had changed my life. In college, I met an amazingly loving guy who said: You are beautiful . Three simple words. But this wasn’t about any outward appearances; it was about being loved. Words can bring love, affirmation, and acceptance. I believed him when he said:   I need you . I still remember the warm, spring day when I heard: Please marry me . Those three words were life-changing. But that was only the beginning. Several years later I shared the...

I’m not a political diplomat, but having studied communications and interpersonal relationships, when someone lies and hurls death threats, it effectively ends meaningful discourse.  Welcome to negotiations with Iran—where the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps encourages the “Death to America” chants among the crowds after weekly prayers and during political rallies. To them, the United States, “is still the great Satan and the enemy of the (Islamic) revolution…” Just a couple months ago in the Persian Gulf, the Iranians sent a blazing message when they blew up a full-size model of the U.S.S. Nimitz.  And let’s not ignore the poignant words by the supreme leader’s representative, Ali Shirazi, “When we look at the Islamic world, we see that the culture of the Islamic revolution has reached all countries and all Muslims throughout the world….We shall not rest until we raise the flag of Islam over the White House.” Honestly, does this sound like...

Despite all the years, she still looked good and kept herself in top shape, running nearly every day. She loved life in the fast lane—and all the things that accompanied fast lane living.  There were plenty of rumors about her checkered past, but she never talked, so no one knew for sure how much was true. As she made her way around town, her sexy and sleek features could make heads turn, especially when she deliberately broke the rules. But she wasn’t a fool. She played by the book when authority figures were around. She’d never been the jealous type either. She didn’t care about anyone’s looks but her own. She just wished that time would slow down. She may not have looked that much older, but she felt it.  She got tired more easily and it seemed that youthful upstarts were gaining ground. A few times she let loose just to show them she still could out pace them all. She saw the appreciative glances afterwards. Yep. She sti...

Chandra knew. Mothers are so intuitive. When her daughter came back from a year of travel abroad, the physical changes weren’t from strenuous hiking. Her daughter looked ill. Medical tests followed, and the prognosis was what she feared. Cancer. In the quiet of the early morning when sleep became elusive, Chandra knew she’d lose her daughter. It was an acceptance she didn’t want to make. Chandra’s single motherhood had tested her in many ways. There was never enough money, nor a faithful father for her daughter. In fact, faith in anything seemed pointless until now. Could God really be bigger than cancer? Chandra wanted to know, because her heart couldn’t bear the loss. During the year that followed, which included surgery, chemo, radiation, waiting rooms, and test results, Chandra and her daughter weren’t alone. A prayer request that Chandra had emailed to a church alerted a woman named Joanie, who had a relentless passion to pray. Tracking Chandra and her da...

My newly divorced dad was trying to connect to me, his teenaged daughter. Munching my breakfast cereal, Dad placed the sports section of the Seattle Post Intelligencer in front of me. He quickly explained how the NCAA basketball tournament worked. The Seattle PI was offering a contest—the best bracket would win a trip to Hawaii. Basketball didn’t enthuse me, but scanning the prizes, I thought, why not? Folding the paper, Dad said we’d begin our research that evening. Research? I had real homework to do. How hard could it be to pick winners and losers? But that was all part of the fun according to Dad. This was before the Internet, so researching college teams wasn’t easy. We relied on newspapers, magazines, and radio commentary. On my way home from school I went to the library and checked out old newspapers and magazines. Yes, that’s how we used to do it way back then. For the next several evenings, Dad and I perused dozens of sports commentaries and plotted ...

College is obscenely expensive and with a nearly 50% unemployment rate among graduates, is it worth it? College debt tops ONE TRILLION DOLLARS. That is more than American’s house/car/credit card debt combined.  College costs have increased 1000% in my lifetime. And bankruptcy isn’t an option with college debt. Where you go, the debt follows. Luke was a high school graduate without finances for college, so he decided to volunteer for an African mission—digging wells and running food shelters for displaced refugees.  He didn’t make any money, but he learned management skills, first-aid on the fly, how to fix a generator with altered parts, and gaining a worldview that living in a tin hut provides.   Arriving back in the states, he still couldn’t afford college, but he found a job stocking grocery shelves. Rather than settling in with the reasonable salary and benefits, he used his free time to take online college courses. Why p...

On the same channel featuring the faith-driven Duck Dynasty, A & E will soon be premiering, Neighbors with Benefits . Perhaps the title leads you to suspect what this reality show offers—wife-swapping with no shame and all the sexual favors. As the promo explains, this is just your average suburban community, but behind the doors of some well-kept homes, weekend parties are opportunities to hook-up with the neighbor’s husband or wife. Once illegal, this swinger lifestyle is now glorified in ways that defy logic. Why even be married? There is no faithfulness, or promises for sharing a unified partnership, or much of a future beyond the next party.  It’s hard to imagine this happening in a typical neighborhood, but having this lusty group willing to make it a reality show says a lot about them. Even more telling is what it says about our culture. Maybe I’m just getting too old. Or maybe I’m disheartened with entertainment that deliberately confuses ...