Are you a YouTube commercial, advertising your beliefs? Give me a minute to explain. Sports teams and race car drivers wear the names of advertisers on their uniforms. And I wonder what kind of advertisements are seen on us? How have we been influenced by groups, organizations, institutions, or communities? How do our views of
What would you do? How far would you go? Give me a minute to explain. The word “commitment” reminds me of a scene in Lois Lowry’s Number the Stars: “To protect her Jewish friend, a Christian girl tears from her neck a gold chain bearing a Star of David and clenches it in her fist
Decision making can be difficult. Give me a minute to suggest three questions that could help. How to respond and when to act are hard to know for certain. Here are three questions to ask yourself (1) CAN I? What is your time and place in the world. What vocational gifts have you been given?
What does it mean to be a success? Give Me a Minute to explain. Do millions of followers on social media make one successful? What of the business people, actors, entrepreneurs, or athletes who seem to have it all? Can we judge celebrities by the front covers of Vogue or Forbes? We often think of
Email Title: Ice, Fire, Can’t, Prep, 1, 2, Tesla, Consent, Structure, GenBio, Nay, Good (10 January 2025) Being without electricity is unexpected in 21st Century America. When you’re stuck at home without heat or hot water (not to mention coffee!). This is no small thing in the modern world. This happened to me in a
In this new year, how should we make our way? Give Me a Minute to suggest an answer. A young colleague asked for some guidance toward his future in higher education. He grappled with what to include in his resume. I sent him something I have been including with my resume for twenty years called
There are only two choices. Give me a minute to explain. “Humanly speaking,” “not necessarily,” and “it does not automatically follow” are phrases we use to admit our best plans, policies, and practices are ultimately outside our control. Our individual, limited viewpoint – we are all fallen, fallible, finite – leaves us with only two
This speech was delivered during the 2025 Research Week Awards Ceremony (30 April 2025). Many thanks for the kind invitation from Jeremy McGinness, Associate Dean, Research, Instruction, and Collections. Further thanks is owed to Dr. John Eller whose three-volume biography of Ray Bradbury I mined for background information. In addition, I thank The Ray Bradbury
What’s my job as a professor? Give me a minute to explain. My job, as a professor, is to hold a mirror up to myself and my students, asking each one of us to be honest about our beliefs. We may not agree with each other. But to appreciate others’ points of view, without necessarily
Are you a YouTube commercial, advertising your beliefs? Give me a minute to explain. Sports teams and race car drivers wear the names of advertisers on their uniforms. And I wonder what kind of advertisements are seen on us? How have we been influenced by groups, organizations, institutions, or communities? How do our views of
Before I open a book, this is what I do. Give me a minute to explain. Thomas Aquinas wrote “A Prayer Before Study” where he prayed, “Grant to me keenness of mind, capacity to remember, skill in learning, subtlety to interpret, and eloquence in speech. May you guide the beginning of my work, direct its
Weather is constantly changing. But we don’t like change. Give Me a Minute to explain why. In her letters Flannery O’Connor stated, “All human nature vigorously resists grace because grace changes us and change is painful” O’Connor’s ideas track with biblical truth. Grace is an undeserved, God-given gift, rescuing us from sin; but we like
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