Here's my Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette column for tomorrow, December 23rd.  I write about old Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol."  More than that, I suggest that God may be calling you to be someone's "Ebenezer" even this week of Christmas!READ ON...-----“Christmas week may be your time to be someone’s Ebenezer”            To say the leastContinue reading "Whose Ebenezer will you be this week?"

My friend Jessica Brusky Batey shared this today from the inimitable Shel Silverstein! It got my week of Christmas off and running well ... with me laughing out loud!

After Ebenezer Scrooge's powerful, spiritual encounters with the spirits of Christmas past, present and yet-to-come, he was overcome with joy having realized that his life had been spared. Laughing with the playfulness of a 3-year-old, Scrooge says: "I don't know what day of the month it is. I don't know how long I have beenContinue reading "Start giggling now! … For Christmas week, put on the heart of child!"

Saturday morning's I normally take a 6-mile walk.  I leave a little after 7 and am back around 9.  I walk and and listen. I pray and observe and think.  During the first 30 minutes or so I do the Daily Examen, especially trying to give time to review my week.As I quiet myself andContinue reading "Being searched by the Master on a cold December morning…"

One of my favorite young writers is Sarah TheBarge.  Her memoir The Invisible Girls was a terrific read.  I love her post today (12/18/2015) as she talks about her annual cancer check-up and what she has been through over the last 10 years.  She's an amazing woman full of grit!  She's also a beautiful snowflake --Continue reading "Beautiful snowflakes are really just pieces of dust!"

Yesterday at the mall I saw a little boy about 4 or 5 years-old with curly blonde hair waiting in line to talk with Santa.  Several times Santa momentarily diverted his attention from a little 2-year-old on his lap. He looked over and waved to the little boy. That did it.  The little boy startedContinue reading "How about some deep belly laughing this Christmas?"

In Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol, the three ghosts (spirits) of Christmas -- the ghost of Christmas past, the ghost of Christmas present and the ghost of Christmas yet to come -- appear and show Ebenezer Scrooge Christmas 3 periods in the course of his life.  After the final spirit -- the ghost of Christmas-yet-to-comeContinue reading "During Advent we do live in the past, the present & the future"

If you know Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol,  you know that Ebenezer Scrooge is not the sort of person you'd like to be. Dickens calls Scrooge was “a tight-fisted hand at the grind-stone ... a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire;Continue reading "Stop to think about it, Ebenezer Scrooge and Zacchaeus the Jewish tax-collector do have some rather distinct similarities…"