While at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, a series of twelve large posters that extended for about thirty feet caught my attention.  The twelveposters were all under one heading: “12 Habits of Highly Healthy People.”  Note: not just healthy people, but “highly” healthy people.  I spent some time in thinking about each of the twelve habits.  Some were not surprising–others were, at least for me.  Space does not permit my going into each in great detail, but here are some highlights. 

Habit 1: Physical Activity.  We’ve all heard from numerous sources that physical activity is good for people, but here are a few important details: finding a physical activity that you like (enjoy) and committing to doing it, every day, for about thirty minutes.  It may be as simple as just taking a walk.  Logging daily results will help keep you on track.  Read more…

Not long ago I stopped by the office of a local school administrator.  She was not in her office, but her new secretary—on the job four days—was.  We talked a few minutes—you know, small talk—and then I asked if she had a card.  Having the direct telephone number and e-mail of a person’s secretary always makes it easier than going through the various voice messages and button-pushing so often required.  She replied, “Oh, Dr. Bradshaw, I am only a secretary.  I don’t have a card.  Being a secretary I will never have a card.”

Through the years, I have met other secretaries who do not have their own cards, but this was the first time I had been given that explanation for not having one.  What she said really bothered me—implying that being “only a secretary” she was not important enough to have a card.  I decided it was time for her to know the historical significance of being a secretary—that being a “secretary” was an honor, not something to apologize for.  So I said, “Let me tell you what being a secretary really means.”  And this is what I told her.  Read more…

Palm Sunday is only one week away.? Have you ever stopped to think about what Jesus did the week before the original Palm Sunday?? There were two ruling authorities in Palestine at that time: the political government that was definitely the ultimate authority, and the religious leaders, whose religious practices could be different from region to region.? Let?s take a detailed look at how things were in Palestine at that time and how Jesus responded to them the week prior to Palm Sunday.?

The Roman emperors had done a superb job of taking control of the more distant and border areas of the Empire, like Palestine, and of keeping peace in these more remote areas after taking them over?all without the use of force or weapons.? How did they do it? Read more…

The Parable of the Wedding Feast (Matthew 22:1-14) starts out by these intriguing words: ?The kingdom of heaven is like . . .?? In the Gospels there are several parables that start with these words.? Most people are interested in these parables regardless of what they think the hereafter holds in store for them personally.? Just think?learning what heaven is really like!? This parable does just that. Read more…

Almost everyone enjoys a good story, especially when the storyteller has a real talent for relating stories.? That is one of the reasons the parables of Jesus have attracted the interest of people from all walks of life dating as far back as the beginning of Christianity.? Jesus was a master storyteller.??

It was the genius of Jesus to use real-life stories?parables?to unite our vertical connection to the Almighty with our horizontal connections to all of life.? If the parables are properly understood, they make God real and foremost in understanding all of our relationships in our daily lives: personal, social, political, professional, recreational?yes, through the parables we can be connected to God in all that we think, say, and do, to life itself.? Read more…

Daylight saving time has started this weekend, as we turned out clocks forward one hour, resulting in giving us more daylight at the end of the day.?

My grandmother was a music teacher.? She always kept two clocks on her piano.? She was a religious woman and said one of the clocks was set to God’s time and the other to man’s time.? The one set on standard time she called God’s time, and the one on daylight saving time she called man’s time.? The family always joked about it, but it was no joking matter to her.? The two clocks remained on her piano year around.

Most authorities agree that the world is divided into twenty-four times zones.? Prior to the advent of railroads there was no reason for time zones to be standardized, and countries and cities had their own ways of determining what time it was.? But with the advent of a single mode of uninterrupted travel, Read more…