Posts by Scott Tolhurst

At the time of writing this blog, there have been 39 mass shootings in the US in 2023. Let that sink in. The year has barely begun and already there have been 39 incidents of shooting where four or more people have been killed or wounded.* The violence has not been reserved to any one…

The title above is an edited quote from a Spanish poet named Antonio Machado. His poem reminds us that our footsteps create the path we need. We make our way in life by striding into it. Our lives do not come with maps. Since every life is a novice experience; we all step into uncharted…

Allow me to reach into the top of the closet and pull down a Christmas memory. One Christmas, when my children’s age fell between the “can’t sleep” goosebumps and the teenage morning coma, I assigned them a shopping trip. I stuffed their fists full of cash and pointed them towards the mall. They had one…

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights…” James 1:17 To get and to receive. These are the two modes of living that sustain us. Both of these paths provide for us, but there is a marked difference between them; in one I am the subject,…

No intro or warm up, I’ll get to my point. My soul (and yours) is not so much fixed as it is grown. It is apparent that our souls are in need. Something is broken, missing or deficient. If we are in tune with our interior, we see the need daily. We also understand that…

I went through a breakup last week, one I didn’t see coming. My cell phone provider called and said, “We need to talk.” I thought our relationship was fine, so I called back with a twinge of confusion. A prolonged and convoluted conversation revealed that my cell phone use was falling outside of the company’s…

If I were to build a bridge, I wouldn’t reach for a kite as my first tool. But Charles Ellet Jr. is a better engineer than me. The time is 1848 and the place is the Niagara gorge. Those who wander north from the famous falls will eventually come to the whirlpool rapids. As the…

My first meeting with a doctor was at my birth. We did not have a formal introduction and our encounter was brief. Nonetheless, it was a life-giving experience. Throughout my decades, I have returned to various doctors more than once. My repeated returns are not a reflection of poor doctoring, but an indication of my…