by Barry Creamer | May 10, 2023 | Devotionals
Before the next graduate entered my office, I could hear her crying, administrators buoying her with affirmations. After some Lamaze breathing, she seemed composed again, ready to be delivered her diploma. Our Vice President for Academic Affairs led her to the...
by Barry Creamer | May 3, 2023 | Devotionals
God invites—commands—us to speak with him. And before we ask, “But what should we say?”, he has already written and delivered to us an entire book of poetic prayers to read or recite back to him. Circumstance invites—compels—us to speak with God, to implore his...
by Barry Creamer | Apr 26, 2023 | Devotionals
Altruism. Between curfew and quarantine I have learned something of bird behavior from the back yard feeder. Tiny tufted titmice skitter from black-capped chickadees, in turn shooed by mere sparrows. Sparrows are rousted by cardinals, cardinals banished by Blue Jays,...
by Barry Creamer | Apr 19, 2023 | Devotionals
Four centuries ago, a man who died before he was forty wrote these seasoned words: “Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright, The bridal of the earth and sky; The dew shall weep thy fall to-night, For thou must die. “Sweet rose, whose hue angry and brave Bids the rash...
by Barry Creamer | Apr 12, 2023 | Devotionals
The seemingly interminable toddling, rumbling, tumbling roll from our gate to the runway finally finished, the airliner’s jets crescendo to a bone-trembling roar as our safety-instructing flight attendants are still settling in to jump-seats fore and aft. Since I am...
by Barry Creamer | Apr 5, 2023 | Devotionals
Luke uses allusions to the world’s darkness, the Death of the Innocents, and Rachel’s weeping to describe Jesus’ death in his gospel (23:44-49). So the crucifixion carries the burden of history’s sin and law, man’s lostness and Israel’s longing. After the burial, Luke...
by Barry Creamer | Mar 29, 2023 | Devotionals
From the Mount of Olives Jesus approaches Jerusalem, his followers chanting messianic Psalms. “Save us, we pray, O LORD!” And “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD! We bless you from the house of the LORD.” As the Pharisees urge him to quell the crowd,...
by Barry Creamer | Mar 22, 2023 | Devotionals
Strong leaders and good leaders: not the same thing. Strong leaders require nothing more than confidence. Video-festos of feigned expertise stock the tank today. History is sedimented with puffered professors and preachers, postured politicians and pundits, angry...
by Barry Creamer | Mar 15, 2023 | Devotionals
“How long till we’re home?” “About 45 minutes.” A friend had asked the question from the van’s back seat just before what would turn out to be a dirty fuel filter began eroding the vehicle’s performance, most notably reducing its velocity from...
by Barry Creamer | Mar 8, 2023 | Devotionals
In the attached photo from Friday evening, cirrus lightly veils the moon. Skies meteorologists predicted would be clear delivered thin clouds. As James describes it, our life is a mist (ἀτμὶς = atmis) that appears for a little time and then vanishes. In moments of...
