By Norris Burkes Oct 3 2021 Have you ever noticed how two situations can seem unrelated, but you soon discover a connection between them? The first situation developed this weekend while I was visiting my mother in a senior living facility in Chino, Calif. Mom is 88 and needs a little extra help
By Norris Burkes Sep 26 2021 I’ve officiated dozens of weddings in my 30 years as a minister, but few were as fraught with risk as the one I performed some years ago in the acute care unit of the Sacramento VA Medical Center. It all began when a nurse sent me to a room
By Norris Burkes Sept 19, 2021 In the aftermath of the Dixie Fire, perhaps California’s largest wildfire in state history, I’m curious how chaplains are aiding in the physical and spiritual recovery of victims. I meet my pastor, Mike Bivins, in the church parking lot at 6 a.m., and we head into the heart of
By Norris Burkes Sep 12, 2021 Last year, I escorted a gaggle of readers to Republica De Francia, a school inside the gang-ridden neighborhood of Honduras’ capitol, Tegucigalpa. We were there to help Chispa Project establish a library. As most of you are aware, my daughter, Sara, began Chispa Project in 2014 to create libraries in
By Norris Burkes Sept 5 2021 I suspect my neighborhood is much like yours, where folks use social media to share thoughts and gripes with anyone who will take the bait. Lately, I’ve read several posts tying the lack of local service workers to California’s substantial unemployment benefits. “They are getting too much money,” one
By Norris Burkes Aug 29, 2021 Not long ago, I was walking near a construction site when I noticed that somebody had the conviction to scratch a two-word message in the freshly laid sidewalk. “Jesus Saves.” “Wow,” I thought. “Did this Christian vandal think themself to be Moses? So confident that they wrote their truths
By Norris Burkes Aug 20, 2021 This photo is a time lapse photo of the Perseids. Shot by my friend, John Bevel on August 2018 Long Lake CA. Becky and I have been baking in our 104-degree summer, and the heat sparked a deepening desire to get cold, chilled, and maybe even a
By Norris Burkes Aug 15 2021 I know readers worry about my wife, Becky, and me living so close to the fires here in Northern California. Hopefully, they do more than worry – they pray – because the flashing strobe on my iPhone emergency notification is blinding! “This is the County Sheriff’s office issuing an
By Norris Burkes, Aug 8, 2021 A long, long time ago in a land called Waco, I began my freshman year at Baylor University inside the dilapidated off-campus housing reserved for penny-pinchers. Fortunately, the Student Affairs Office mismatched me with two seniors, Tommy and Ken. Both were at the top of their class. Tommy was
By Norris Burkes August 1, 2021 Does Jesus care if you say crap? If you think that’s an odd beginning for a spiritualty column, imagine how I felt when Dr. Richard Cutter asked the same thing in our early morning Greek class at Baylor University in 1978. Cutter posed the question after listening to my
By Norris Burkes July 25, 2021 https://youtu.be/pdBM35AyXT0 Today’s media can often seem like a name-blame-shame game with its frequent demand to have someone’s head on a platter, at least in a figurative way. The language is not new. It recalls the literal beheading of John the Baptist in Mark 6: 14 – 29. If
By Norris Burkes July 18, 2021 We all remember the surprise we felt when our high school teacher announced, “Put your books away and take out a piece of paper – Pop quiz!” Well, today’s column is a pop quiz to appraise your understanding of Freedom of Religion. It concludes my three-part series celebrating American
