by Guy Sayles | Mar 23, 2013 |
There is something in us—something sacred, I believe—which recoils from the idea that the universe is its own explanation, that our existence here is a happy but meaningless stroke of cosmic luck, and that there is no Artist, no Designer, and no Life-Giver behind,...
by Guy Sayles | Mar 19, 2013 |
We said the following Affirmation of Discipleship in worship at First Baptist Church of Asheville yesterday: I take up my cross to follow Jesus. Because Jesus commands me, I will love God with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength. I will love my...
by Guy Sayles | Mar 11, 2013 |
“We are beggars. This is true.” Martin Luther scratched- out those words on a scrap of paper just before his death on February 18, 1546. “We are beggars. This is true.” Most of us aren’t like the beggars, the panhandlers, we will meet on...
by Guy Sayles | Mar 6, 2013 |
What does money mean to you? For many of us, I think, money means safety and security. We depend on money to feed us, clothe us, house, us, provide medical care for us, transport us, and educate us. Money puts gates around our neighborhoods, fences around our...
by Guy Sayles | Feb 22, 2013 |
In “The Panther,” Poet Rainer Maria Rilke imagined a great, muscular panther pacing in a cramped cage at a Paris zoo: From seeing the bars, his seeing is so exhausted that it no longer holds anything anymore to him the world is bars, a hundred thousand bars, and...
by Guy Sayles | Feb 8, 2013 |
Think of the hours we spend on food and drink: going to the grocery store, perusing cookbooks and magazines for recipes, being sure the kids have lunch money, grabbing a bottle of water on the way to work, and stopping midmorning for a coffee break. We eat and...
by Guy Sayles | Jan 23, 2013 |
Unless you’re a painter, roofer, or fire-fighter, you’re probably not on a ladder very often. From time to time, you use a step stool to reach the top shelf of a tall cabinet or a step-ladder to change a light bulb. A couple of times of year, you get out the...
by Guy Sayles | Jan 19, 2013 |
At First Baptist Church of Asheville, we’ve been taking a close and hopeful look at the challenges and opportunities we face. That crucial work continues, and I’ve suggested that, as we do it, we need to keep in mind some pervasive trends which characterize our...
by Guy Sayles | Jan 6, 2013 |
My father believed the old proverb “Idle hands are the devil’s workshop.” He didn’t like to see me sitting still, unless it was at the dinner table or in church. Otherwise, he wanted me to be doing something constructive. If he didn’t think I was...
by Guy Sayles | Dec 24, 2012 |
In his compelling and controversial novel, The Testament of Mary, Colm Toibin, imagines how Mary felt while carrying Jesus in her womb: I know that my own happiness in those first months, when I was with child, felt strange and special, that I lived in a...
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