On his radio show, Dennis Prager devotes an hour a week to the subject of happiness. The subject has proven important enough to fill the hour week after week, year after year. Prager has a lot of good things to say about the subject, perhaps the most important of which is that being a happy person is a moral responsibility. To walk around as grumpy as Eeyore is to have a draining effect on others, which is a profoundly unloving thing to do. Plus, it is an affront to the God who made us for joy.  But of what [...]

This morning I sat across the table from a charismatic faith healer. He excitedly told a story of encountering a paraplegic in a park. As his story goes, back then, he was not yet mature in his belief that "it is always God's will to heal; healing in this life is promised in the atonement; we just need to grow in faith to be able to receive it." So, when he saw the man in the wheelchair, he couldn't muster the courage to approach. However, after passing the man several times as he strolled his laps around the park, [...]

The human frame was not made to live in constant crisis mode. Adrenaline can give a needed boost in the event of a crisis, but adrenaline is a toxin in the system if it pulses there for too long. Living in perpetual crisis mode is sure to produce anxiety problems and may even result in emotional or physical breakdown.  Somehow I suspect the media isn’t worried about our wellbeing. They have news to sell, and nothing sells like a crisis. In 2020, they had four major ones for sale. Let’s consider these in a better light. Let’s ditch crisis [...]