The Road You're On

“Jim and I have been called America’s Spiritual Odd Couple. I thought about that. Why are we an odd couple? We’re never at odds. We’re not arguing. We may be different but we’re not arguing. I’d like to help people stop throwing down the gauntlet on these issues. When someone throws down the gauntlet, I…

“We’re not supposed to have hope because we bury our heads in the sand and we pretend that awful things are not happening the world. The real nature of Christian hope is to look at all the terror that we see around us eyeball to eyeball and yet to not be afraid. To be able…

“Jesus said, ‘If you love me, you will do what I command.’  Some people live on the ‘Do what I command’  side of that comma, but we need to get back to the ‘If you love me’ side of that comma.  When you are in love, the relationship becomes this fresh air internal motivation.” Gayle…

“The only way we can go in and experience the transformative presence of Christ is to go in these difficult places assuming that we’re not coming back.” Gayle Trotter:  I’m speaking with Shayne Wheeler, author of The Briarpatch Gospel. Your subtitle is “Fearlessly following Jesus into the thorny places.” Where are the thorny places right…

“The way that you demonstrate exceptional gratitude is you give freely, from your heart, to those who are in need.” Tommy Newberry spoke with me about his new book, 40 Days to a Joy-Filled Life.  With Christmas fast approaching, I wanted to share with you his thoughts on exceptional gratitude. Gayle Trotter:     What does exceptional gratitude…

Thanksgiving inspires us to pause and count our blessings of family and friends. Defiant Requiem, a new film showing Jewish life in the Nazi concentration camp Terezin, filled me with similar thoughts of gratitude and admiration. Many of the inmates of Terezin were musicians and artists. Despite living in wretched conditions of hunger, disease, and…

Offending seemingly everyone and everything is not easy. Still, the creators of “South Park” managed that feat in their 2004 movie “Team America: World Police.” The movie includes a scene depicting a Broadway production, “Lease,” a parody of the critically acclaimed, award-winning musical “Rent.” The parody riffs on life under the shadow of AIDS —…

“You possess a rare beauty, my love, in here,” Snow White’s mother tells her as she touches Snow White’s heart. “Never lose it.” The new film Snow White and the Huntsman captivates the audience with a dramatic retelling of the old fairy tale.  The key themes are beauty, power, and the desire to avoid growing…

Tomorrow at noon, in cities all across the U.S., people will be gathering in support of religious freedom.  These Stand Up for Religious Freedom Rallies follow the successful March rallies held in 145 cities across the nation, drawing 63,000 people. The rallies respond to the Health and Human Services federal mandate that requires almost all…

Watching the HBO Sopranos series recently, I was captivated by the story of a mobster, Tony Soprano, who does horrible things to make a living and yet has to deal with the typical problems every father, son, husband, and brother have to face. The three episodes I have watched could be entitled “The Commandments We…

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