IT’S HARD TO make progress when you can’t see where you’re going. That is true whether you’re navigating down a foggy highway, lost in a forest, feeling your way through a power outage, or just bumbling through life in general.

LEADERSHIP SKILLS ARE desirable qualities. Girls’ and boys’ clubs promise to develop them. From academic programs to the armed forces, turning lemmings into leaders is a constant theme.

JOSEPH HAD A problem, and it wasn’t a small one: The girl about to become his wife was pregnant. He wasn’t the father, so the law was clear: Honor could be restored to both households by stoning.

Consider John the Baptist for a moment: What a résumé! Luke alleges that John’s kinship with Jesus is biological. That alone is worth some bragging rights.

CHRISTMAS IS ON its way. You can feel it rushing in toward us like a runaway train, uncontrollable and inevitable. It transforms the environment of the church as much as the landscape of the community, not to mention the economic reality of many parishioners.

THE DEMISE OF the analog clock has probably affected the learning curve a little. But flashing digital displays still don’t offer to children or other fine people the precise meaning of time that goes along with merely knowing the numbers.

LET’S DROP SOME names. Who’s the most impressive person you ever met? I had a glass of wine with Henri Nouwen 30 years ago. I was at a party attended by Hans Küng—though he certainly wasn’t aware of me. I think I passed Yoko Ono at a crowded bazaar and was nine rows from Paul McCartney at a concert, speaking of the Beatles.

MANY OF OUR fellow citizens sold or lost homes in recent times. I unloaded mine this year, so I know the heartache and hardship of seeing your whole life packed into boxes or tossed into the trash outright. Of course it’s not “life” that’s contained in our material possessions or even our idea of home.

MY MOTHER IS 82 and has decided, at this late date, that she doesn’t want to go to heaven—which is too bad really because she’s headed in that direction. “Heaven bothers me,” she said bluntly during my last visit home. I felt obliged to inform her: "Mom, most people are bothered by hell, you know."

God is the one who makes us worthy for the calling; it is divine power that brings to fulfillment every effort of faith. The mission of the church doesn’t depend entirely on you and me, and that alone is cause for rejoicing.