Father & Son

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Go For It

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One of the most heart rendering experiences I've ever had occurred on a mission trip to the south pacific. My niece came with me along with a dozen other workers. We arrived at the airport in Manila Philippines for our return flight to America. My niece reached for her passport...and it wasn't there. One thing for certain, you're not getting on an international flight without a passport. It was lost on the bumpy ride to the city. She had everything, but not quite! Everything.. but the most important item... which gave her right of passage. At that point, nothing else mattered. I recall her weeping on my shoulder, "Uncle John, there going to keep me here forever". How God bailed us out of that jam was amazing and a great devotion for another time. What I'm reminded of from this is the story of the rich young man that came to Jesus in Matthew 19. He had everything and had kept all the law. He would have been like the Bruce Wayne of Palestine. He had money, ...
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Up At The Villa

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    The novel Up At The Villa by W Somerset Maugham is a love story set in early 1940, during Nazi occupation, of a sleepy Italian village in Florence. An aristocratic widow, Mary Panton has her future and wealth sealed upon the death of her abusive, womanizing, yet extremely wealthy husband, an Italian diplomat. In a short time, her heart and love is intrigued for an enigmatic Rowley Flint. An American with with a mysterious past. She falls for him but her aristocratic pride will or would not accept his advances. Flint has truly fallen madly in love with her but soon realizes she has her nose stuck up to high to be associated with him. He deals with his un-requited love and begins to fall into a sense of sadness. As the novel continues, and skipping to the meat of the story, Mary Patton murders a man, after a one night stand, over a senseless and reckless mistake.     Mary resorts to the only man that could help her with this conundrum, The America...
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Guest Blogger: Chaplain Mary Beth McSwain

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Grief Like A Child   “Faith like a child.” This is a phrase I’ve heard many times as a person who has grown up around Christian culture, and who would even call themselves “churchy.” Jesus talks about children when he is asked about entrance into God’s kingdom and he says, “Anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it” (Matthew 18:1-5, Mark 10:13-16, Luke 18:15-17). I admit that my visual snapshot of this Gospel moment has always entailed a child running around, jumping up and down, making messes, giggling, effortlessly living life, struggling to stay still while they sit on Jesus’ lap. They approach the kingdom of God with energy, zeal, with a wonderful kind of recklessness and trust. But my encounter with Leah, a 10 year old granddaughter of a woman dying, expanded my view of what “faith like a child” means and what entering the kingdom of heaven might also look like. It was Monday at lunch time at the VA hospital in Nashville. I had just gott...
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