Pain is a real drain. Most of us, when we are feeling emotional or physical pain, are not acting on our best behavior. In fact, our hurt frequently causes us to create hurt for others. Right?

When are you most likely to hurt another person — on a day when you are feeling super or on a day when you feel lousy? That’s right. We are most likely to bark out in anger and growl at others on those bad days.

So? So, help me out here. Get some help for that pain so that you will treat me (and everybody else who has to be around you) better.

After all, the best gift that you can give your family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, and the world itself — is a positive, happy you! So take some time for yourself. Lighten up. Lay your burden down. Have some simple fun like a walk in a park or a plunge in a pool.

And don’t tackle your pain alone. Get some help. Talk to a friend about it — or talk to a counselor, or a rabbi, priest, or pastor.

Think of someone who is hurting more than you and go help and/or listen to that person. Go into a nursing home or school or a day care or a hospital or a jail and volunteer to spend time with lonely people. It will work wonders for you if you will try it.

Begin today. Let your pain motivate you to seek genuine healing rather than settling for mere denial or attempting to numb the pain with constant activity and/or chemicals.

I like the scene in the movie, “What About Bob”, where Bob grabs Leo and says something like: ”Help me. Please, please, please, I hurt!” Bob desperately wanted help and healing. And he got it (although in a rather round about way).

Maybe you have accepted your pain and lived with it so long that you have no hope of ever living without it. But please reconsider. Why not take a positive step toward a hopeful future today?

Should churches have nothing to say to our society except to passively offer religious blessings to our culture? Should they be non-prophet organizations?

Or should churches be prophet making? Should they challenge us to live better lives as individuals and as a society? Should they speak out against injustice? Should they hold us accountable to live the creeds we profess?

The real question is not “Deal or no deal?” It is “Prophet or non-prophet ? Living in the light or pretending to be right? Repenting or consenting?

Hey. It is amazing what a year’s worth of monkey pictures can tell us.

Lauran Neergaard of the Associated Press reported recently: “Scientists who spent a year photographing orangutans in the rain forest say the trait (human walking) probably evolved in ancient apes navigating the treetops.” (I wonder what those same ape photos tell us about Tennessee’s dismal high school graduation rate.)

The same article states: “Evolution requires a reason for such a special skill (as human walking).” Ok. Let me understand this. Isn’t evolution considered a natural process without any intelligent supernatural involvement? So how does a process “require a reason”?

Take a rock rolling down a hill. It doesn’t ”require a reason to roll” because it doesn’t roll itself. The rock is rolled by a force outside itself — gravity rolls the rock. The rock is completely passive. It doesn’t “require a reason” for anything.

Nowadays scientists speak in absolute, dogmatic terms about something that it is impossible for them to prove — that life on earth happened by itself without the action of any supernatural intelligence.

Educational institutions and scientists hold and promote this dogma like their lives depend on it.

Forces of evil abound in this world. What else could motivate someone to randomly kill innocent men, women, and children by blowing himself up with a bomb? Most human beings can easily recognize the evil of a suicide bombing, even when it is cloaked with the smoke screen of a “religious” or political cause.

We easily discern the working of evil forces in the thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors of others. But as human beings we often fail to see the working of forces of evil within our own thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors.

During the past 5 years I have interviewed about 1200 men who habitually abuse alcohol and use drugs. As these guys tell me their stories of destruction, I am always amazed at how much evil their behavior has caused — lies and deception; broken hearts of loved ones; drunk driving injuries and deaths; stealing from friends, employers, and even close family members; the sexual disrespect of women; fraud and hypocrisy; various crimes committed; random acts of violence; the abandonment and/or abuse of their children; and on and on.

After hearing their stories of the misery that they have personally caused, I ask them this question: “So, what kind of person are you?” Almost all of them answer: “I am a good person.”

Like most human beings, the men I work with refuse to admit and acknowledge the evil of their own hearts and minds. However, we can never win a long-term victory over the forces of evil in the world until we begin to recognize and defeat those forces of evil that are working in our own thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors.

“Even if we transport all bombs to the moon, the roots of war and the roots of bombs are still here, in our hearts and minds, and sooner or later we will make more bombs. To work for peace is to uproot war from ourselves and from the hearts of men and women.” –Thich Nhat Hanh

It takes much courage to recognize, face, admit, and strive to overcome the evil within ourselves. We are so inclined to justify ourselves. However, one man who faced the evil within his own heart and spent his life trying to overcome it was Paul of Tarsus, who wrote much of the New Testament. He never claimed to be a good person. Instead Paul said: “O wretched man that I am.”

A recent article in the Tennessean, written by Peter Slevin of The Washington Post, seems to be attacking St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke for agreeing with the Pope. Slevin writes: ”At a time when significant segments of the Catholic population are breaking with the church on such issues as embryonic stem cell research and abortion, Burke, 58, is adhering to Vatican orthodoxy endorsed by Pope Benedict XVI. He expects the same of all Catholics in his archdiocese.”

So? Why is it a news item when a Catholic Archbishop consistently agrees with the Pope? (Are there that few of them who do?) And why shouldn’t an Archbishop expect Catholics to act and believe like Catholics?

Slevin also writes: “While some praise Burke for firmness in an era of moral laxity, others complain that the church under his direction seems out of touch.” Uh . . why should the church (or any other organization) be in touch with those who choose to purposefully work against its teachings, morality, and doctrine? Does the American Civil Liberties Union stay in touch with evangelical Christians? Do pro choice groups stay in touch with people who believe abortion is murder?

Stand by your church, Archbishop Burke! I wish we had many more like you!