Yes, I'm a minister. No, I don't have a church.

I love Lent. I love the deep silences and the lack of easy answers. This may be part of my also loving any music in a minor key. It quiets my busy mind and me. But the practice of Lent annoys me, with people telling me on social media what they are giving up. There is no good reason for my dislike. I feel a tad less virtuous at every post reminding me that I might be a bad Christian, and I find it petty and aggravating when people post how much they miss chocolate or coffee during Lent. 40 days is nothing, honey. I know there are people in the world who will never have either. I used to give up something for Lent. I even briefly toyed with taking on a spiritual discipline. But I’m just not good at it. For the past several years, I have decided that I might just not even bother, since I’m only going to slip and then kick myself for over it. We (the publishing company where I work) published a Lenten study on forgiveness. I studiously avoided reading it for many months, even t...

(This post is the second in a series. The first post in the series is "Caveats & Privilege," which you can read here .) Dear Fellow Business Travelers, Don’t be a jerk. No, I’m serious. Don’t be a jerk. This goes for all travelers, not just the business ones, and not just the ones who are Christian. I do think that being a Christian means acknowledging that all people are children of God. All people are sacredly human. And we are radically equal in terms of our created-ness. Here are a few examples of how to live into that belief that God’s creation is sacred. A flight attendant once told me one of his least favorite things a traveler can do is hold up her or his trash without looking up at the human being collecting said trash. Just because someone is there to serve you (and arguably, flight attendants are there for way more than to serve you) doesn’t mean you get to ignore them. It’s rude. Also, you know enough not to yell at a flight attendant,...