It has been a few weeks since I’ve been able to write a post for this blog. I am sorry. I have missed the conversation and the chance to reflect on things from my study on Saturday mornings. Read more»

Watch President Philip W. Eaton’s newest video describing why the best learning takes place in community. He includes thoughts on Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s classic book, Life Together.

It seems like a lot of people are dying these days. I had that thought this morning as Sharon and I watched the funeral mass in Boston for Senator Ted Kennedy. And I found myself thinking about the lives that have stepped off the stage in the last few months and years... Read more»

We’ve got to focus on what matters. These thoughts all came into clearer focus for me over the weekend while I was sitting in a vibrant worship service at the Lawndale Community Church in Chicago’s Westside. Read more»

Is it possible that cooking good food can change the world? Or that eating such wonderful food could change our lives? Sounds a little preposterous, I know, but I thought about these questions last night. Read more »

I am taking a few days of vacation in August, and I love it. Once we get into a break like this, we suddenly realize how much we need it. I’m sure you know what I mean. Read more»

The late, great Jewish novelist Chaim Potok said on my campus some years ago that “we live in a world of colliding maps.” I think he is absolutely right about that, though I don’t always like it. Read more»

I find myself imagining the hundreds of thousands of scientists, engineers, managers, office personnel, and executives it took to put two men on the moon. That was forty years ago today, July 20, 1969. Read more»

I recently attended a fundraising breakfast sponsored by a fine organization in Seattle that is dedicated to bringing the best of medical technology to the health and wellness of poor children across the globe. Read more»

The news moves fast these days. The afternoon of Michael Jackson’s sudden death, a young man on a commuter train spotted a gentleman across the aisle reading a newspaper. Read more»

I hope you are engaging with me on some of these ideas in this blog. I launched the blog because I want to carry on a conversation about some of the things that matter to me, things that matter to our world, I hope. And I am thrilled with the response. Read more»

Bernie Madoff stood before the judge today for sentencing and received a 150-year sentence. We were told he would be allowed to doff his jail-issued uniform for the occasion. Read more»

David Hubbard, longtime president at Fuller Seminary, was a towering figure for me about how to lead courageously, with conviction and clarity, and yet to lead with grace. Read more»

A hugely important person in my life died this week. And I’ve been thinking a lot about what a professor can mean to a student — throughout life. Read more»

“Nobody knows. Nobody knows. Nobody knows” — this was the answer, from a smart, savvy friend of mine, to the question of where the bottom is to this awful economic freefall that seems to drag us down so painfully. Read more»

I was in Jackson, Mississippi recently, and as I sat waiting in a van outside John Perkins’ home, an afternoon rain pelted the windshield steadily. On the plane to Jackson, I had been rereading John’s amazing autobiography, Let Justice Roll Down. Read more»

I have this intense desire to carry on a conversation about things that matter — and so I decided to launch this blog. I hope these things matter to you as well. Read more»