Yesterday, our Pastor preached a Thanksgiving message that relied heavily on the nostalgia of family holidays. I can certainly relate to that. As a child, holidays were a wonderful time. I remember Thanksgiving as a …
The following is a talk which my departed grandmother invited me to give for her Sunday School class at First United Methodist Shreveport and which, due to some confusion, was given in its entirety to …
I grew up in a small country Southern Baptist Church in rural California. When my family moved there our family of six doubled the size of the church. But, the church did grow over the …
I grew up in a Southern Baptist world filled with sacred tunes of both the vintage and contemporary variety. Ironically, the tune that has framed my spiritual experience more than any other stemmed not from …
Dear Dad, You went to be with Jesus 10 years ago. In honor of a decade of the best 10 years of your existence, I wanted to give you an update on how things have …
Am I Hispanic? It seems like such a simple question. But ethnic identity can be complicated these days. I’m 6’5″ with grey eyes and light skin. My mother was from the Appalachian hills in east …
On the Louisiana College campus, there’s a carillon at the top of the central historic building that plays awful bell arrangements of traditional evangelical hymns at certain times during the day. When I was a …
Some of my earliest memories are filled with images of Pentecostal worship—from both above and beneath the pews, as I often slept under them during worship services. For most of my life, I’ve enjoyed preferred …
The fat water snake didn’t know what to make of us. It had slithered down toward the river, probably seeking the same swimming hole where we were spending the afternoon. Maybe it wanted to catch …
Even though I live in town, there’s a non-park wooded area within a short distance of my house that I sometimes like to go for a walk through. As woods go, they’re not as enchanted …