by Guy Sayles | Jun 28, 2016 |
Two Sundays ago, at the Sheetz convenience store in the west end of Huntington, I stood in a longish line, waiting to pay for a cup of coffee and anticipating the drive back to Asheville. Behind me was a middle-aged man who had a giant soda (“pop” as they say in...
by Guy Sayles | Jun 28, 2016 |
One of the projects I had the opportunity to work on last year came to fruition with the publication, this month, of Exemplars: Deacons as Servant and Spiritual Leaders (Smyth and Helwys). Elizabeth Allen and Daniel Vestal, of Mercer University’s Baugh Center for...
by Guy Sayles | Jun 23, 2016 |
An enduring symbol of medical practice is the physician’s caduceus; it’s a winged staff, with two serpents twined around it.Robertson Davies reminded me that the Greek myth of Hermes is this symbol’s origin. Hermes came upon two warring snakes, “who writhed and fought...
by Guy Sayles | Jun 16, 2016 |
It’s tempting to remain silent in in the wake of the violence in Orlando. It’s also wrong.We need the kind of silence which makes room for prayer and grief. Speaker of the House of Representatives Paul Ryan was right to call for a moment of silence when the House...
by Guy Sayles | Jun 9, 2016 |
Music is everywhere. The creation itself pulses with pizzazz and praise; the universe dances to the jazz of joy. We can hear the music in the trumpeting cry of an elephant, the playful greeting of a dolphin, and the upward call of a soaring hawk. It’s in the contented...
by Guy Sayles | Jun 5, 2016 |
Downtown Huntington was hopping yesterday. There were bike races on some of the city’s central streets, a festival in the river park, and Comic Con at the Big Sandy Arena.There were “civilian” pedestrians like me, dressed for the alternating hot sunshine and...
by Guy Sayles | Jun 2, 2016 |
For the last few days, I’ve had the chance to take long walks on Holden Beach, and I’ve been enchanted by the interactions of parents with their children: a mother gingerly wading out into the ocean with a baby girl resting in her arms; another mother teaching her...
by Guy Sayles | May 26, 2016 |
Hank Williams asked one of the profoundest questions I’ve heard: “Why can’t I free your doubtful mind and melt your cold, cold heart?” He plaintively sang: The more I learn to care for youThe more we drift apart.Why can’t I free your...
by Guy Sayles | May 24, 2016 |
My post on the Center for Healthy Churches websiteOne of the most significant “leadership” books I’ve read in the last couple of years is A Beautiful Constraint: How to Transform Your Limitations into Advantages and Why It’s Everyone’s Business (Wiley, 2016). ...
by Guy Sayles | May 19, 2016 |
A wise woman of the Spirit, Evelyn Underhill, claimed that most of us spend our lives “conjugating three verbs: to want, to have, and to do. Craving, clutching, and fussing, we are kept in perpetual unrest.”To want. Sometimes we can name our desires: friendship,...
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