Dan Savage, the anti-bullying educator and founder of the “It gets better campaign” has been a dynamic spokesperson and educator about the destructive power of bullying. But did he, in a weekend address to the high school students at the Journalism Education Association and the National Scholastic Press Association, use the same tactic he’s trying to stop, when it’s used against gay people? Did the anti-bullying advocate become the bully?

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Yesterday we continued our Easter worship theme, “When the Impossible Is Possible.” So many of us feel powerless to change things in our lives or in our world, especially “the big things.” That’s exactly why we need to hear over and over again that what God shows us through the Resurrection is that with God “the Impossible Is Possible.”

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Sunday in worship, our Lenten Focus was on Pilate – the Roman Governor of Judea and Trayvon Martin – the 17 yr. old African American teenager who was shot and killed in Sanford, FL. The two stories are remarkably similar. They’re both about accepting personal responsibility when people try to “wash their hands” of the very act they are involved in.

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This coming Sunday is next to the last Sunday in Lent. The following week, April 1st (no joking!) is Palm Sunday. So, if you’re like me and haven’t quite gotten around to claiming a serious Lenten discipline for this season, here is one I suggest you consider. Give up the poisoned and poisonous parts of your life.

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Guess what happens this time of year? Anybody who parents a child knows it well. All that cool stuff that was bought for kids when they began school last fall no longer fits! It’s just another one of those mysteries of life. One day those pants fit perfectly, the next day they are “floods.” One day that top fit perfectly, today it’s way too tight! So the annual ritual begins of casting off the clothes they have outgrown.

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Online dating is now the most popular way of meeting someone. As in all “marketing,” one’s profile is the most important thing after one’s picture. Let’s be real – attraction almost always trumps our profile. But that profile is in essence our life story, our “narrative.” So what does your profile say about you?

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Ever find yourself asking, “Why me?” or, “What in the world did I do to deserve this?” or, “Isn’t there someone else who could do this?”

I think it was the new-age spiritualist, Marianne Williamson, who offered the best response to “Why Me?”

She would say, the question isn’t “Why Me?” The question is, “Why not me?”

And from there she would move into one of her most famous quotes:

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Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone! Yes, singles and couples!

Such a day with cupid throwing arrows that hit some and miss others! Thank goodness, God’s aim is better. More on that in a moment.

Do you remember the first person you had a “crush” on? I sure do. I also remember knowing I dare not let anyone know who he was because he was a guy, not a girl. In the time and place I grew up, it was cute – even a rite of passage – for a guy to have a crush on a girl; but guys couldn’t have crushes on guys and girls couldn’t have crushes on girls.

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I’m always a little surprised to find that the Jesus in the Bible is really not the same as the Jesus in hymns and on those decorative plates your grandmother had.

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“Teaching is, by its very nature, not a profession that yields a lot of tangible returns—and especially not in the first decade or so…The teacher who has simply tried to be faithful in activating thought and whose life is given to helping students to create for themselves frequently is never able to know whether anything at all has resulted from the work.

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