Ten days after her diagnosis of metastasized lung cancer, David’s wife died. She suffered, but not for long.

When a loved one dies, we become more intensely aware of our own mortality. The Psalmist wrote, “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” (Psalm 90:12, NIV) When we pause to remember life’s brevity, we get our priorities straight. We live in the moment. God and love and relationships and personal authenticity matter more than. . . whatever else worries our hearts.

Do you love someone? Tell them. Do you hate someone? Forgive them. Do you have a dream? Take a step toward it today. Today may be all there is.

“May you live all the days of your life.” Jonathan Swift

Steve Taylor’s trademark satirical humor shined in his screenplay through snappy dialogue and clever imagery, with an over-arching feel that –as the character Penny put it–“We all have our crap.” We sure do.

Casting was believable, with Marshall Allman (from True Blood) as a young Don Miller, disillusioned upon finding out that his Christian subculture was not all he thought it was, experiencing the world at large and asking questions about God and faith for the first time in college. Justin Welborn (from The Crazies) nails the role as the campus “Pope”, an atheist driven to release souls from the tyranny of religion. Claire Holt (from The Vampire Diaries) plays Don’s activist friend with a heart for India, and Tania Raymonde (from ABC’s Lost) plays Lauryn, their lesbian friend, just trying to figure out her identity. Great music enhances the modern, energetic feel of this film.

Heed the PG-13 rating. Beside the language and self-destructive behavior portrayed, I think the concepts discussed are too heavy for younger kids to process on the level at which they are presented.

This movie is for Protestants and Catholics and atheists and agnostics, both gay and straight. It’s kind of a love it or hate it movie. I’ve read other reviews that argue that the characters are too stereotypically Baptist Christian hypocrites or too stereotypically militant atheist; but this story is based on Don Miller’s life. On his story. These are the kinds of people he encountered.

You’ll love this movie if:

• you love honest portrayals of life and dialogue between people of differing faiths and no faith
• you hate corruption and hypocrisy in the church
• you recognize that no human is totally evil or totally good, we’re just all trying to fill needs
• you want to make a positive difference in people’s lives

You’ll hate this movie if:

• you cannot abide anyone who thinks or acts differently than you do
• you really want to believe that the world is all black and white and nothing in between
• you don’t want to interact with anyone who: cusses, gets drunk, uses condoms, disrespects religion, doesn’t disrespect religion, denies the existence of God, believes in God, questions God, has sex outside of marriage, is gay, doesn’t have sex outside of marriage, listens to rock music, goes to church, votes different than you do, etc.

So, how about you? Have you seen Blue Like Jazz? Did you love it? Hate it?

By the way, for you non-gamers, FTW means, For the Win. It’s a good thing.

If the holidays snuck up on you, too, you might want to check out Speed Cleaning for Passover .  I’ve got the speed cleaning thing down to a science. Don’t judge.

As a Christian who celebrates Bible holidays, I love it when Passover and Easter overlap. Our family has plans for a fun and integrated weekend celebration. But for interfaith families, spring holidays can cause tension at home, as the holidays magnify our core beliefs.

Tips for Jewish-Christian Interfaith Couples at Spring Holidays

It’s not just interfaith families that stress, though. We can hope for a meaningful time so much that we put pressure on ourselves and our families to make the “perfect” holiday: the perfectly clean house, the perfect clothes, the perfectly prepared foods and decorations. It’s downright brutal!

Both Passover and Easter represent freedom and restoration. Remember not to get so hung up on customs that you lose the point of the faith. In a week, the holidays pass, and we’re left with the memory of how we treated (or mistreated) one another and ourselves. As the saying goes, don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.

I’d love to hear how you celebrate spring holidays in your home–especially if you’ve figured out how to do it without conflict or stress. Passover? Easter? Secular Spring? A little of everything?

You might like some of the following holiday sites/articles.

FamilyFun.go.com  One of my favorite sites for holiday craft ideas, recipes and printables

Alenkasprintables.com  These free little printable butterfly baskets and candy wrappers would make cute gifts for a Sunday School class.

www.calvarywilliamsport.com/activity-pages.html Printable flashcards for teaching the triumphal entry, death and resurrection of Jesus

Why Is This Night Different? Free printable Messianic Passover unit study by Karen Caroe

PreciousHolidays.org My holiday website

10 Ways to Remember Passover if You Don’t Celebrate

Jesus, Sun of Righteousness (Yes, S-U-N)

Passover Seder About Jesus? Since When?

Should Christians Denounce Easter?

Thousands of years before Jesus was born, Pagans drank from cups as part of their worship rituals. In ancient Egypt, Pharaohs were worshiped as gods. The Bible records one such Pharaoh showing favor to his cup-bearer. (Genesis 40:1-43)

The Bible talks about cups in Genesis 44:5: “Isn’t this the cup my master drinks from and also uses for divination? This is a wicked thing you have done.”

As the evil king Belshazzar and his nobles, wives and concubines drank from ornamental cups, they praised the gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood and stone. Even as they brought those cups to their lips, the handwriting appeared on the wall, foretelling the wrath of God which would come upon them speedily. (Daniel 5)

You may think, “But I don’t worship Pagan gods. I just drink from cups.” No matter. You must honor the origin of the cups—how they were used in Pagan worship by some people at some point in history. Come out from among them and be separate!

When God raised up an army for Gideon, he called out the few hundred that drank water from their hands, lapping like dogs. God used this elite group to take on the armies of the enemy. (Judges 7:5-7) Ask yourself: Are you faithful enough to drink from your hands, lapping like a dog? Are you holy enough to separate from your friends and family members who insist on using cups? Or will you continue your Pagan worship of drinking from cups, and invite the wrath that came upon Egypt and Babylon?

I know my answer.

—OK, peeps. Confession time. This is an April Fool’s Day gag. Did I have you going? Let’s hope no one else can sway you with the same foolishness. Hugs, Kathryn—

A devout Jew goes to his rabbi for advice. “Rabbi,” he says, “I’m having problems with my son. I brought him up in the Jewish faith, sent him to Hebrew school, threw him a big Bar Mitzvah party, and now he tells me he’s become a Christian!”

The rabbi answers him, “It’s funny that you should come to me. I also brought my son up in the Jewish faith. I sent him to Hebrew school, and I threw him a big Bar Mitvah party. He, too, became a Christian.”

The man is astonished. “What did you do?” he asks.

“Well,” says the rabbi, “I prayed to God.”

“And what did God say?”

“God said, ‘It’s funny that you should come to me. . .’”

Get it? Get it? Think about it.

To Drink or Not to Drink: That is the Question

Now on to more Purim-y matters. The Talmud (not the Bible) tells us to drink to excess on only one night of the year: Purim.

Meghilla 7b says, “A person is obligated to drink on Purim until he does not know the difference between ‘cursed be Haman’ and ‘blessed be Mordechai.’”

Maimonides wrote: “That one should …drink wine until he is drunk and falls asleep from drunkenness” (Mishneh Torah, Laws of Megillah, 2:15).

At all other times, Judaism forbids drunkenness. Why the command for drunkenness on Purim? Because Purim is about revealing hidden things. Just as Esther’s true identity was hidden, and Haman’s true character was hidden, we hide our true intentions behind a mask of social refinement. Purim is the one day of the year to strip away all pretenses and reveal to ourselves who we really are beneath the self-control of rational thinking. Drinking doesn’t bring about a new personality. It only reveals what was there all along (This means you, Mel Gibson).

The point here is that drunkenness during Purim is a legitimate doctrine. It’s not just an excuse for bad behavior, as some people charge. And there is a vast difference between drunken misbehavior as a way of life, and one drunken evening for the purpose of growing closer to God.

Of course, many, many people, both Jews and Christians, celebrate Purim without getting drunk, and believe that drunkenness is wrong for any reason—even if it brings about unrestrained joy.

From a practical perspective, I can’t help but think that there is a fine line between getting drunk enough to “fall asleep from drunkenness” and getting drunk enough to die from alcohol intoxication or asphyxiation. That line can’t be figured accurately by one who is already impaired by alcohol, and who is not a regular drinker.

I believe that whether you drink much, drink little, or don’t drink at all, God sees your true self, and he weighs the motives of your heart. I personally choose not to get drunk for Purim. What about you? Do you celebrate Purim? Are you planning to get drunk tonight? How do you strip away pretenses and get real before God and others?

Freebie: For a free MP3 audio download of the book of Esther read by Aviad Cohen, from the Complete Jewish Bible, go tohttp://aviadcohen.com/music.cfm and scroll to the bottom of the page.

See also: Hammantaschen Recipe for Purim

“So, Catholics are just like Christians, only they add stuff. Is that right?” I stared at my teenager. Was she joking?

Angela understood the concept of Christian unity; but she lost an important specific—Catholics are Christians. Her dad and I taught her this, but even the most diligent teaching gets derailed, if we’re not diligent to reinforce it.

I understand how she got confused. I hear the same anti-Catholic rhetoric that she does. From “it doesn’t take all that to please God,” to Catholicism as “the Pagan whore of Babylon,” and a “Godless theology of hate.” [From, "Should Christians Support Israel?", John Hagee, 1987]

As far as Catholics adding things, I told my daughter, there are striking similarities between Catholic and Jewish traditions. The Catholic 40 days of Lent, for example, mirrors the Jewish 40 days of Teshuvah. Catholics say that their faith traditions were handed down directly from St. Peter, a Jewish disciple of Jesus. The similarity in traditions makes a good case for that.

Protestants say that Catholics add stuff. Catholics say that Protestants take away stuff. For all of our differences, however, we agree on one fundamental truth: Jesus is the Son of God.

The Bible says, “If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God.” (1 John 4:15, NIV)

No matter how you slice it, that makes Catholics and Protestants brothers and sisters in faith.

“Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.” (1 John 4:20-21, NIV)

After that incident with my daughter, I turn to the calendar to remind me to reinforce unity through education. We’re using the opportunity of the Lenten season to explore the rich heritage of our Christian faith, and the multitude of directions that God leads his children within that faith. Do you teach your children to embrace believers who follow traditions and practices that differ from your own? Or do you teach your kids to separate from them, because they are not real Christians? Or is it somewhere in between?

See their story HERE.

My parents married in 1948. They’ve been a couple since they sat next to one another in high school, 68 years ago; and they’ve been an inter-faith couple for the past 30 years. Last night, John and I visited them, bringing a mix CD of their favorite love songs for Valentine’s Day. While Mom danced and sang with my husband in the dining room, I sat in the living room with Dad and reminisced.

My childhood memories include Mom going her way and Dad going his, each anchored home by love for one another. Sometimes Mom disapproved of Dad’s actions–or vice versa. They voiced their opinions, then gave the other freedom to do as they chose. Disagreements were taken in stride, and the life they forged together was taken with joy and love and laughter. I’m the youngest of their five children, and a witness that their devotion to one another is not for show. It’s for real.

When John and I married in 1984, I tried to become the devoted Christian wife that my church said I should be, but my husband never asked me to be. I put aside my talents and the things that I loved in order to support my husband. I kept my mouth shut if I disapproved of his decisions. In turn, he put aside his passions to become the devoted Christian husband that our church said he should be, but I never asked for. He kept quiet about his dissatisfaction, and tried to carry the responsibilities of decision-making alone.

We lost our individuality, which was the very thing that drew us to one another in the first place. Our resentment for one another grew. After years of misery, we came to the conclusion that our marriage wasn’t working. Though it looked good on the outside, it was just for show. We decided to go our separate ways–together.

By Focusing on Individuality, We Found Unity

Our church taught us that the formula for joy is: Jesus first. Others second. Yourself last.

That’s catchy, but it nearly destroyed our family. The formula that rescued us is the same one that seems to work for my parents and for Ralph and Phyllis Tarant: Individuality first. Then family. Then community. God created us individually. He gave us each unique perspectives, talents and abilities. When we put his purpose for us as individuals first, we aren’t being selfish. We’re putting God first.

The Bible is full of paradox. Lose your life, and you will save it. Give and you shall receive. By focusing on individuality, we found unity.

That doesn’t mean we don’t make sacrifices for one another. Individuality First means that at times we choose to sacrifice in order to encourage individuality in our spouse. And that sacrifice becomes part of who we are as individuals. It all circles around and connects.

Today, my husband and I love one another with joy and love and laughter. I go my way, and he goes his. When things start to get unbalanced, we go back to Individuality First and find unity again. God willing, we will still be as devoted to one another in our final days as we are now. Now it’s for real.

After twenty-six years of marriage, this was our first Valentine’s Day date. For the record, it wasn’t my idea.

Growing up, Valentine’s Day meant heart-shaped pancakes, construction paper doilies, candy hearts, and comparing loot at class parties. By the time I hit my teens, February 14 was my favorite holiday. In my mind, the day symbolized all the love in my life–God, family, friends, heroes and even pets. I didn’t want to waste such a wonder-filled day on something as fleeting as dating. So I never did.

That was fine by John. After we married, we celebrated with home-grown azaleas and chocolate, with relatives and friends, but never with romance.

Last Valentine’s Day, our grown children urged us to forgo our usual ritual of watching I Love Lucy videos, and make reservations at the famous waterfront Columbia restaurant overlooking Tampa Bay at sunset. It seemed silly to me; but it was the perfect opportunity to break out that designer purse I got for my birthday. I even picked up some shoes at Walmart to match. I wore pink satin, because that seemed Valentine-y, and I ordered ropa vieja because I knew how to pronounce it. (That’s right. I still don’t speak Spanish.)

I’m no rube. I know what fork to use. On any other day, I would have floated into the restaurant, taken in the spectacular view and enjoyed every moment. But on February 14th, as the maître d’ escorted us to our table, I felt like all eyes were on us—and not in a good way. I could almost hear Anthony Hopkins hissing, “You know what you look like to me with your expensive bag and your cheap shoes?”

In the same way, I checked out other couples. I wondered about each one—how long they’d been together, if they had children, if they were having fun. I scanned ring fingers for wedding bands. One guy looked like the guy in the Old Spice commercials. You know, the man your man could smell like. I gave John a look at that nod. He glanced over, then burst out, “I’m on a horse!” Very discrete.

After dinner, we walked along the pier and took pictures. What should have been a lovely night seemed so forced. Aside from the stain of Cuba, the evening ran smoothly. It just wasn’t. . . real.

I can’t put on romance like pink satin. Romance shows itself spontaneously, like when my husband smiles at my klutzy blunders. Like when he plays my favorite music as we ride in the car. When he cleans up the line of dead ants stuck to the wall with hairspray—even after he wins a cut-throat game of Uno that says he doesn’t have to.

Maybe I just need to give it time. Should we try dating again this year? What do you think of Valentine’s Day dating? I don’t see how it could ever beat I Love Lucy.

See also: Tips for Interfaith Couples on Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day Activities for Children

Wearing Your Heart on Your Sleeve: History of Valentine

JESUS ON TAXES: “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” See Luke 20:20-26

JESUS ON HEALTH CARE: “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.” Matthew 10:8

[See also Jesus' Parable of the Good Samaritan from Luke 10:30-37]

JESUS ON IMMIGRATION: “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in?…The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’” See Matthew 25:34-40

JESUS ON MARRIAGE:  “At the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’  and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’. So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate…I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery…Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given…The one who can accept this should accept it.” See Matthew 19:3-12

JESUS ON THE ENVIRONMENT: “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God.”  Luke 12:6

JESUS ON FINANCIAL AID: “Be generous to the poor, and everything will be clean for you.” Luke 11:41

JESUS ON ARROGANT AND HEARTLESS LEADERS: “Watch out for the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely.” See Mark 12:38-40

Could it be–is it possible–that God is not in a political party? Could it be that right and wrong transcend politics?