Pathway Perspectives

Media sources carried the terrifying story earlier this week of an attempt to rescue two adults and six children who were stranded hundreds of feet above ground on a disabled cable car in northwest Pakistan. No effort or expense was spared to bring those adults and children home safely. Now, consider the annual return of your children and grandchildren to school and the extraordinary efforts to en...

“What you do in your house is worth as much as if you did it up in heaven for our Lord God,” says Martin Luther. The great Reformer knew the special significance of the home and God's word at work in that place. Here is a reason why: the fifth command in the Ten Commandments emphasizes proper motives inside the home.It links honor for one’s father and mother to possession of the land that God prom...

“I do not recognize Larry Ashlock” was the humorous end result to a brief conversation I recently had with Amazon’s “Alexa,” a virtual assistant artificial intelligence (AI) technology now popular in homes and businesses. My experience indicates only one of many frequent daily interactions we all have with this type of technology.Face ID and image recognition, emails, apps, social media, Google se...

Economics permeates every facet of human existence, and how we use financial resources collectively holds moral implications for governments and businesses, as well as families and individuals. This first sentence undoubtedly creates a mind full of thoughts! I’ll break it down a bit to introduce a fresh challenge to the way we typically think about economic equality and our Christian responsibilit...

Rudeness is like the common cold; it is contagious. Uncivil behavior in global culture has become highly transmissible. Whether it is a member of the United States Congress shouting “liar” at the President when he is making an address, or an actor climbing onstage and then slapping and cursing a comedian friend at an awards ceremony, or numerous social media platform videos that capture bad conduc...

It has been said that “Death is no respecter of persons. Natural disasters are no respecter of nations.” Both statements have been demonstrated, yet again, in the aftermath of events that recently took place in Turkey and northwest Syria. A catastrophic 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck that region on February 6, 2023. The death toll has surpassed forty-six thousand lives, as of this writing, and th...

The poet Robert Frost once wrote, “good fences make good neighbors.” This maxim influences the beliefs and actions of many people when they consider the hot-button topic of immigration. This moral issue currently evokes visceral reactions, as well as intense political, legal, economic, social, and religious discussions.Despite the often-heated rhetoric divide that surrounds the topic, I find that ...

An airline company advertising slogan has greatly increased its brand awareness with the sales pitch, “Wanna get away?” I am certain in a similar vein that many people are wishing they could get away as the hectic holiday season descends upon us.Our culture is shackled by rapidly rising costs and greatly diminishing buying power due to inflation, frightened by escalating crime and violence across ...

Jesus' ministry on this earth demonstrated how to live in response to the voice of the Heavenly Father. He teaches us that we can hear the Father most clearly when we are in agreement (Matthew 18:19). Christians struggle in every age, but especially in our current generation, with coming to agreement in ways that give witness to God's voice. This requires the Spirit's guidance. The terms "guiding"...

“To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instructions in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice and equity; to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth”Proverbs 1-4, ESV A curious phenomenon occurred recently when I was shopping at a Walmart big-box store. Those locations have quite a reputation for odd dress and behavior, so nothing I ...

"And the Lord turned to him and said, 'Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do I not send you?'"Judges 6:13-14, ESV Hurricane Dorian, a category 5 storm with winds in excess of 180 mph, slammed into the Bahamas in 2019 and left inestimable damage in its wake. Property loss ranked in the billions of dollars and seventy-four people perished in the storm. More than two h...

“My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments, for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you."Proverbs 3:1, ESV The horrific school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, has caused our nation, and the world, to convulse, yet again, with wave upon wave of grief. There have been fourteen mass school shootings and 169 killed in the United States since the 1999...

"And in this matter . . . who a year ago started not only to do this work but also to desire to do it. So now finish doing it as well, so that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have."2 Corinthians 8:10-11, ESV “They need not go away; you give them something to eat” were instructions that Jesus gave to his disciples prior to the feeding of the five t...

The Psalmist wrote, “I am feeble and crushed; I groan because of the tumult of my heart” (Psalm 38:8, ESV). His longstanding sickness left him isolated from family and friends and feeling as though he had been abandoned by God! His journey through illness led him to consider his spiritual well-being. Many of us will know the feeling of abandonment that such an experience with lengthy illness will ...

Vedran Smailovich was the foremost cellist for the Sarajevo Opera when the siege of Sarajevo began in 1992. Bosnian Serb forces shelled the capital city and snipers targeted citizens. The siege lasted nearly four years. On May 27, 1992, an artillery shell exploded in front of a bakery where people were lined up to buy bread. Twenty-two innocent citizens were killed, and more than 100 others were s...