4th Day Letters

Please join me in celebrating my 700th 4th Day Letter. When I sat down to write this week’s 4th Day Letter, I reflected upon the memories of so many past messages. I can hardly believe that I have written seven hundred over the past 13 plus years. I only set out with...

Here we are at the beginning of Holy Week. For us as Christians, this week stands as the pinnacle week of the year. Good Friday and Easter Sunday are inextricably linked, each giving meaning to the other. Without the resurrection of Easter, Good Friday would merely...

Matthew 25:31-46 gives us the parable about the separation of the sheep from the goats. In it, Jesus tells us if we fail to care for the "least of these" (the hungry, thirsty, homeless, naked, sick, and imprisoned) we will go off to eternal punishment. Simply stated,...

Moving is never easy. It can disrupt our routines, pull us away from friends, and fill us with uncertainty. Yet sometimes, we know deep down that we’re being called to move. In 1999, my family and I left the comfort of close friendships in Florida and stepped into the...

As you know, Lent is a time set aside for deep reflection, repentance, and preparation. As we journey toward the Good Friday cross and the glorious resurrection of Christ on Easter Sunday, we seek to align our hearts with God’s will, stripping away the distractions of...

During my freshman year at Ohio State, I read Dante’s Inferno as part of a class called Religious and Secular Man. This book left a deep impression on me. Drawing inspiration from it, I thought I would attempt something totally different. As we continue to make our...

Circumcision, that ancient practice first instituted by God as a sign of His covenant with Abraham, might seem puzzling to us as modern Christians. Why would God choose such an intimate and painful act to signify belonging to Him? And what could this ancient ritual...

Life has a way of pulling us into the mud. At one time or another, every person finds themselves sinking into a pit—sometimes of their own making, sometimes through no fault of their own. It could be the weight of addiction, the burden of guilt, the exhaustion of...

Last week I wrote about the difficult and painful issue of sudden death. Therefore, I thought we needed something lighter and uplifting this week. I decided to write about the Five-Second Rule. We’ve all been there. Our favorite food slips from our fingers, landing on...

Life is fragile. We are here one moment and gone the next. There have been several recent airplane crashes in the news. The tragic collision between an American Airlines flight and a U.S. Army helicopter over Washington, D.C. is a sobering reminder of just how quickly...