“‘People I associate with are looking at me like, are you guys crazy?’”  That was school committee chairman John Coyne’s comment when a measure he opposed was approved by a 7-2 vote of the Portland (Maine) School Committee (South Bend Tribune 10-19-07).  Why did that vote make the national headlines a few weeks ago?  Because it was a decision to allow children as young as eleven years of age to obtain birth control pills at a middle-school health center.   News indeed!

Was this some sort of Halloween joke?  The headline caught my eye:  “Hunter shot by his dog.”  You’ve got to be kidding!  No, the Des Moines, Iowa, story turns out to be very true, painfully true.  Jim Harris, 39, was out hunting last weekend on the opening day of pheasant season.  As he and his canine buddy were moving through the brush, Harris stopped, laid down his shot gun, and you can guess the rest.  “Man’s best friend” accidentally stepped on the shotgun, tripped the trigger, and at close range pumped 100-120 pellets into Harris’ calf.  The good news is that Jim is recovering from su

Two very different headlines this week ought to give us all pause.  Mother Nature’s awful conflagration in southern California has been front and center all week long for the American news media.  And why not?  The greatest evacuations in California’s history were the result of what may yet be the most devastating fires in that state’s history.  Fortunately the loss of human life was limited.  But the economic and ecological losses to that region of the state and nation are monumental and mounting.

One out of every eight people on earth lives on the continent of Africa.  But the mystique of that ancient continent—with its stunning natural beauty and its enchanting native lore—has been bowed by the twin epidemics of poverty and HIV/AIDS.  The World Bank identifies Africa as the greatest aid challenge on earth, reporting that more than 314 million Africans—nearly twice as many as in 1981—live on less than $1 a day.

Did you hear about the Pittsburgh man last week who went in to a Giant Eagle supermarket and paid for a head of lettuce with a $1 million bill?  That’s right—one million dollars.   And he asked for change!  The wide-eyed but suspicious clerk notified the manager, who promptly confiscated the bill.  Whereupon the customer promptly flew into a tirade, smashing the electronic funds-transfer machine beside the cashier and grabbing the scanner gun.  Police arrested the man.  When later asked by a reporter for comment, a police spokeswoman replied, “It’s a bit different.” It certainly is!  The U.

If you’re a firstborn, did you know there was a price on your head?  This headline is a tad old (about 3,500 years or so), but nevertheless it’s true.  On that dark and fateful night that the slave kingdom of Israel fled Egypt in the mighty Exodus, God declared that the firstborn of every Israelite family (and flock and herd) belonged to him, “It is Mine” (Exodus 13:2).

Even if you’re afraid of heights, this is one pinnacle I wish you could stand upon.  Many consider it one of the most sacred sites in all of Dark Ages history.  Today I’ve invited my young friends from the School of Architecture here at Andrews University to share with you the story of that unforgettable day when together we stood atop the Castelluzzo, that infamous rock tower high above the alpine valleys of northwest Italy and immortalized in John Milton’s sonnet, “On the Late Massacre in Piedmont”:
Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones

Would you like to know what a group of students, faculty and community members identified as God’s top four agenda priorities for our world and our university?  For the past two weeks our House of Prayer has been focusing on “Seeking God’s Agenda.”  The premise to that quest is simply that the goal of the Christian’s prayer life is to embrace God’s agenda as your own agenda.  (Have you noticed—so much of our praying focuses on our own agendas for ourselves, our needs, our wants, our problems, our desperations.  Nothing wrong with bringing those to God, to be sure.  But the great prayers of

“When terror comes, they will seek peace, but there will be none. Calamity upon calamity will come, and rumor upon rumor.” At this sixth anniversary of 9-11 these cryptic words of an ancient prophet (Ezekiel 7:25, 26) give pause for reflection, don’t they? Run through your mind a quick scan of the national and global headlines since that fateful September Tuesday in 2001. Tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes—the more than usual intensification of nature. Madrid and London and Baghdad—new hot spots in a post-9-11 world.

If God were standing up front beside a white board right now, and we asked him to please write on that board what his top agenda is, what do you suppose he would put up as #1?  For Andrews University?  For Pioneer Memorial Church?  For our world?  What if you asked him to write up his top priorities for your own life?  What would he write up for my life?  Ever wonder what God thinks is most important around here?