Jim was dying. Oh, we didn't know when, but it was clear that his illness was terminal and he didn't have long. As such, his son Jim Jr. wanted to make peace. There was a long list of hurts to review and no easy path to reconciliation. Still, the two were making good ground and healing was happening, one meeting at a time... But sadly, they didn't have enough time to cover everything. Jim rapidly declined one afternoon and the next morning, he died. As a Chaplain, it was my

I grew-up in pseudo-Messianic Jewish organization. Actually, it was more of a Christian cult group that tried to keep the Law of Moses and then add the teachings of Christ on top of that. It didn’t work well and eventually, the founder passed away and the doctrines were changed—for the better. In the midst of those changes, I remember breaking one of the first Old Covenant rules by ordering a Bacon Cheeseburger at McDonalds. I knew it was Biblically OK, but I still didn’t wan

I visited a wonderful dementia patient this week. She has been minimally responsive for several months now, but I think we found a key to connect. She loves to sing. This week, we joined hands and sang everything from "You Are My Sunshine" to Sinatra tunes. After each song, for which amazingly she remembered all the lyrics--some of which I had forgotten long ago--she'd look me in the eyes, squeeze my hands and say, "I LOVE you!" She melted my heart. This story reminds me of t

We were camping in Rhode Island when the Brake System warning light came on in my truck. I put in some brake fluid and the light went off. So, I knew I had a leak, but assumed all was now well. We hitched-up the trailer and drove an hour and a half to get home. I left the truck at the shop for service. I asked them to do an oil change and to check on the brake line leak. “You dodged a bullet,” the mechanic told me later, “You could have hit a small pothole and this whole brak