There’s a psalm in the Bible which states, “How good and pleasant it is when families live together in unity” (Psalm 133:1). I think we would all agree that where a group of people is united, they’re likely to experience a lot less friction than they would being divided. The problem is that it’s easy to have a wrong idea about what it means to be united. And this wrong notion can lead to a misunderstanding of what we…

  April Tower-Chimes: The Seasons of Life We recently had to put our 13-year old cat, Lucy, to sleep after it was discovered she’d developed cancer. We’re grateful that on her last day with us she seemed to be pain-free, and even her trip to the vet was relatively stress-free. In her final moments we told her we loved her, gave thanks for the joy that she was for our family, and tearfully bid her good-bye. After a lifetime of…

  March Tower-Chimes: Keeping the Right Perspective Who among us doesn’t prefer stability over instability, predictability over unpredictability? By nature, most of of are wired to want things to be stable. This is why the precarious state of The United Methodist Church over the past few years has resulted in soaring levels of anxiety within the denomination. It would be difficult for any elderly life-long member of the UMC to point to a time in their life when denominational anxiety…