Letters are limited to 300 words and should deal with a specific subject. Letters are limited to one per writer. All letters are subject to editing for grammar, spelling, taste and length. Letters must be the writer’s original work, and the writer’s name, address and daytime number must be included (the name and hometown are printed, but not the address or phone number).
’Twas Christmas Day and all through the house not a creature was stirring, least of all, me or my spouse. We were exhausted.
Life's mysteries unfold in odd ways, don't they? The Wall Street Journal reports that churches by the thousands are signing up for a service to do to us what corporations and other private groups have done for years – select their targets based on specific, revelatory and actionable data that you might have thought was your own darned business. Feeling blue? Marriage going down the tubes? The big algorithm in the sky can pick up on that based on your search history, and it might send you an ad for a lovely cruise.
I thought for this last column of the year I would bring you a 2021 retrospective – a recap of our lives over the past 12 months. However, in doing a bit of research, I discovered that the “top” headlines for this year were so damned depressing I would save you a column’s worth of angst and save this weighty tome to a retrospective from my point of view to give a more light-hearted approach to produce, I hope, and in order, a giggle, a smirk and maybe a Tinkerbell-fairy-dust modicum of hope.
Even as the U.S. Supreme Court ponders what to do with Texas’ restrictive new anti-abortion-rights law, a Missouri legislator has filed a bill that would mimic it here – complete with an enforcement mechanism that tries to circumvent constitutional issues by inviting random private citizens to sue abortion providers at will. That mechanism, which even conservative Chief Justice John Roberts has derided as “a bounty hunting scheme,” would set a dangerous precedent on issues far beyond abortion.
The generosity of our community continues to impress me. Even when times are tough, like dealing with the aftermath of a global pandemic, our community rises to meet challenges with kindness and generosity.
As the head of Bridges, which sponsors 25 ministries in six states, I’ve seen our local leaders learning how to live and function during a dangerous malady which is impacting millions of people. But I don’t mean COVID-19; I mean the PTSD that results from it.
The message of Christmas is universal. It is the triumph of hope.
This story takes place around Christmas, but it tells a truth that is true all year ‘round. I’ve told it before in various versions.
The Advent season means I can be assured that on one of those four Sundays the congregation will sing “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.” “Rejoice! Rejoice!” we sing at the beginning of the chorus. We’ll probably get just four verses, but it will be loud and earnest.