I came across an ancient Persian poem by a poet named Hafiz, written in the 1300s. It made me think of worship. Even after all this time the sun never says to the earth, “you […]
Author: Pete Santucci
Give it your all … but stop trying so hard
Soccer practice had just ended and I was ready to head for home. But the coach had a different idea. As the other boys trickled off to their cars and awaiting dinners, the coach pulled […]
A picture of our torn up praise
Awhile back, I came across a song by the band Phosphorescent called “A Picture of Our Torn Up Praise” and it has intrigued me ever since — not the song, just the title. Doesn’t our […]
Errors about Creation = Errors about God
“Any error about creation also leads to an error about God.” -Thomas Aquinas If God is the Creator, then thinking badly about and acting badly toward his creation is directly related with thinking badly about […]
A trinitarian view of being human that corrects our either/or approaches
I was reading an excellent article, nodding all the way, until I got to the point where the author made a distinction between two types of people and then sided with one of them. From […]
Political posts and the 9th Commandment
On any given day, anyone using Facebook is subjected to a bunch of political posts. I know that some people block or unfriend people who get too political (especially if they hold the opposite view), […]
238 miles of ABBA & the death of creativity
It took him more than five hours to drive to Chicago, during which time he listened to “Dancing Queen” by ABBA about 100 times in a row, stopping only for gas and other essential duties. […]
Sports, idolatry, and mission
The Incarnation. It’s a topic for sermons each December. God takes on flesh in Jesus and enters into our circumstance in the humblest of ways in order to save us. It’s one of the most […]
The importance of self-knowledge to exceeding our limitations
How good of a driver do you think you are? Top 50%? Top 90%? I don’t know where the stat came from, but years ago I read that 90% of Americans think they’re in the […]
Who are you? The real purpose of labels, names & identities
A friend of mine was once the victim of a clever prank that lasted for months. The person he and his wife had asked to house-sit for them removed all of the labels from all […]
Is humanity redeemable? Snowpiercer vs. Jesus
Occasionally, a movie will stick with me for weeks and months afterward. Sometimes, it’s a movie like Frozen with its tenacious “Let It Go” song, which won’t do what it suggests. Then there are movies of […]
Are we living in bad times or good times?
One of the worst parts of using Facebook is seeing all of the articles people post whining about how bad things are these days. It doesn’t matter what your political leaning is, there is plenty […]
Teddy Roosevelt and manliness
I recently finished the Pultizer Prize winning biography The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris. It is a fascinating telling of the years leading up to Roosevelt’s presidency. But one of the themes that […]
Eating as education
So, they decided to serve chocolate milk at my son’s elementary school again. They’d stopped. But now they’re at it again. The reason? Kids didn’t like the regular milk as much. I get it. Kids […]
Facebook and the story of your life.
The Facebook experience has been analyzed from pretty much every angle. But there’s one angle that I’ve yet to come across and that’s Facebook’s role in creating a personal narrative. With every post, every person […]
Of love and technique
My three boys and I love soccer. I played as a kid and have coached my boys during their early years of playing the game, stepping aside when I got to the limits of my coaching […]
Doing things that I hate when other people do them & the gift of laughter
I used to wear a watch. Now, I have an iPhone. (But that trade is a story for another time.) Back in the days when I wore a watch, way back when I was in […]
Equality: a poor substitute for love
When our culture treats one group of people badly, we seek justice through attempts at making a level playing field for everyone. At such times, these attempts at equality are necessary and helpful. But that’s […]
In praise of tables
I’m sitting at a coffee table right now. It’s a rough-cut, slapped together affair that’s not all that flat and full of dings. But it’s over a century old and cost us nothing and it’s […]