Posts

Lastest Post

Pablo Casals, The Second Greatest Influence in my Life

Image
  Pablo Casals was considered the greatest cellist of the first half of the 20 th Century. He married my cousin, Marta Casals Istomin, when I was a child. One summer, I got to spend a few days with them at their beach house in Puerto Rico. I would listen for hours as he practiced the piano and the cello. I would sit in their listening room to their extensive collection of classical music albums. That summer began to shape my musical ear and tastes. I would be in awe and world class musicians just stopped by to chat with him and play music. However, what became life changing was when Don Pablo would take the time to sit and talk to this snotty nosed kid about life, philosophy, and music. He would light his pipe and talk at length about Bach and Beethoven. He would talk so long that his pipe would go out, and he would have to light it again and then go off on another monologue about his philosophy of life. I still remember the smell of his pipe. It was just a few times that we...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Wisdom the World Cannot Offer

Image
  There is a question that cuts through centuries of religious debate, philosophical argument, and cultural noise: What does the church have that the world does not? It is a question worth sitting with, because the answer shapes everything about how we understand faith, community, and the presence of God. The answer is not better entertainment. It is not more compelling rhetoric. It is not a sharper intellectual framework or a more sophisticated moral philosophy. The answer is the living presence of the Holy Spirit, moving among people, revealing the depths of God to those who belong to him. That is the irreplaceable, unreplicatable gift at the center of the Christian life. A Message That Stands Apart When the apostle Paul arrived in Corinth, he made a deliberate choice. He was not going to compete with the eloquent orators and celebrated philosophers of his day. He was not going to out-argue the intellectuals or out-perform the rhetoricians. Instead, as he writes in 1 Corinthians ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Prayer: A Conversation With God

Image
  Prayer is one of the most powerful tools available to a believer, yet it remains one of the most misunderstood. For many people, prayer was introduced as something to be memorized and recited — words spoken on cue, repeated by rote, checked off a list. For others, prayer was never on the radar at all, making the whole idea feel foreign and uncertain. And even for those who have walked with God for years, prayer can quietly drift from vibrant conversation into a one-sided monologue aimed at the ceiling. But here is the truth: prayer was never meant to be a performance or a ritual. It was designed to be a relationship — a living, breathing, two-way conversation between a child and a Father who genuinely wants to hear from them. So what does that actually look like? There are several key elements worth understanding as you develop or deepen your own prayer life. Who Are You Talking To? The first question worth settling is a simple one: who do we actually pray to? Jesus himself answe...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Hard Work of Forgiveness: Four Things You Need to Know

Image
  Of all the things we are called to do as followers of Christ, forgiving others may be the most difficult. It sounds simple enough in theory. Of course we should forgive. Of course we should let go of the hurt and move forward. But when someone has genuinely wronged you, when the wound runs deep and the pain is still raw, forgiveness can feel less like a spiritual discipline and more like an impossible demand. And yet, the Bible does not treat forgiveness as optional. In Matthew 6:14-15, Jesus makes the stakes remarkably clear. He teaches that if we forgive others, our heavenly Father will forgive us, but if we withhold forgiveness, that same forgiveness will be withheld from us. That is a sobering reality. Forgiveness is not a suggestion tucked gently into the margins of scripture. It is a command, woven directly into the fabric of what it means to follow Jesus. So how do we actually do it? How do we forgive the person who devastated us, betrayed us, or caused harm we never fully...
Post a Comment
Read more

What Does It Really Mean to Repent?

Image
  The word repentance gets thrown around a lot in Christian circles. It shows up in sermons, in worship songs, in casual conversation between believers. But if you were pressed to define it — to explain what true repentance actually looks and feels like — could you? Many of us would stumble. We might say something about feeling sorry, or promising to do better, or asking God to forgive us. And while those things are not entirely wrong, they often miss the deeper reality of what genuine repentance involves. Here is the truth: repentance is not a performance. It is not a transaction. It is not a shame spiral that ends with you promising God you will try harder next time. It is something far more profound, far more relational, and ultimately far more freeing than most of us have been taught. The Greek word for repentance literally means to turn around. To be heading in one direction, stop, and go the other way. Spiritually, that means turning away from sin and turning back toward God....
Post a Comment
Read more