One early morning in the fall of 1936, ten-year-old Frederick Buechner and his younger brother were playing happily in their room. Their father walked down the hall, checked on them, and then he proceeded down to the garage where he started the family Chevy and waited for the exhaust to kill him. The family did not attend the funeral, and rarely talked about the tragic death. They quickly relocated to Bermuda to get a new start. Why do people do it? Take their own lives when it leaves a trail of emotional......

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Could Christians teach our culture how to be civil again? Could we demonstrate what it looks like to listen intently to one another? Before his death in the fall of 2020, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks expressed his deep concern about the death of civility in western culture. Not only has this become a secular problem in politics and the public square, but also a big problem among believers of the same faith tradition. “Civility is more than good manners. It is a recognition that violent speech leads to violent deeds; that listening respectfully......

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Relationships matter in life. The quality of your relationships will always determine the quality of your life. It’s a simple and timeless truth. The pandemic was so difficult because relationships were cut off. We were told to stay apart. Christianity is based on the opposite of “social distancing.” Jesus had issues with many aspects of organized religion, but he was a master of cultivating relationships. My friend Rubel Shelly, who has taught and preached at Woodmont, wrote a great book years ago titled I Knew Jesus Before He Was a Christian…and I......

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