The NU Blog Page

(I share this Reflection, Brilliant Autumn Leaves, each year in the early autumn, about the time the leaves in the northern hemisphere begin to change color.  So, here it is!) A few years ago, my wife and I enjoyed a ten-day trip to New England, where we were able to experience the brilliance of a…

Most good decisions that I have learned occur when I am feeling good and unstressed. Conversely, when I am not physically or emotionally steady, it is so very easy to “go off the deep end” and make awful choices, choices that I will surely regret in hindsight. Have you ever experienced that? The same thing…

This week’s Reflection, Dirty Laundry, is a simple illustration of how we often see life through our personal “lens.” If the lens is clean, we will see clearly. If the lens is clouded by sin, we will see less clearly. This thought reminds me of Jesus and those he chastised for having a log stuck…

Decision-making is one of the more difficult things we do in life. I have recently become aware of a book by Andy Stanley that addresses one’s personal decision-making and its impact on one’s own life and the lives of others. It is titled Better Decisions, Fewer Regrets. My sense is that the wisdom contained in…

My mother-in-law, we call her Mom2, was born on this day 100 years ago. She was raised in rural Louisiana during the “great depression,” married at the beginning of World War II, and traveled the world as a military wife with two small children. Later, she lost her first child to cancer, her second child…

I live in a clear space between two storms, storms that threaten families and communities even more than hurricane Fred that is bearing down on the coast of Florida as I write. The two storms are only one battle in a larger war. This particular battle is being fought against a common enemy, the COVID-19…

On Christian Compassion: “Compassion is an enduring motif in the history of Christianity.  It is not unique among Christians, nor is it activated evenly across all believers.  But when Christianity shines, it often does so because of compassion. As Pope Francis wrote, “The Church’s very credibility is seen in how she shows her merciful and…

As you grow older you notice that everything falls away. I recently calculated that at age 76, around 85 percent of my life has been spent and I probably only have about 15 percent left, i.e. the gas gauge is about to hit the “low on fuel” indicator! That caused me to notice a poem…

Yesterday I visited the humble retirement home, a house on Highway 71 that had been occupied by my grandparents some sixty years ago. It is located in the Danish farming village of Danevang, Texas. One by one, the town’s immigrant farmers slowly retired to this simple stretch of rural roadway, just down from the community’s…

What Is The Difference Between Happiness and Joy? Slightly edited by the Chaplain from a reflection by Rich Lewis on 9 July 2021 in which he considers Nicholas Amato’s book: Happiness & Joy: Can A Spiritual Life Have Both? Do we need to experience happiness before we can feel joy? How long do happiness and joy last?…