On My Mind

Come to the Mountain

By Joe Barnett / July 5, 2025 / Comments Off on Come to the Mountain

Why would thousands of people mail tons of rocks to a volcano? Simple. Pele, the goddess of volcanoes, had them spooked. Pele made her home at Mt. Kilauea in Hawaii. She has a nasty temper and has had a mad on since 1983. Mt. Kilauea has melted rocks, spit lava, and eaten trees for years, […]

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Adversity Defines Us

By Joe Barnett / November 2, 2024 / Comments Off on Adversity Defines Us

If you belong to a generation predating Gen X, Audrey Hepburn (1929–1993) swept you off your feet in Roman Holiday, Funny Face, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, or My Fair Lady. But you may be unaware of the backstory that seems the opposite of Audrey’s on-screen charm. That story was what prompted her son, Luca, to say […]

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He Didn’t Want to Die

By Joe Barnett / September 7, 2024 / Comments Off on He Didn’t Want to Die

In a Commencement address at Stanford University, the late Steve Jobs said: “No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there.” Death is an enemy that terrorizes mortals, causing them to be “like slaves all their lives because of their fear of death” (Hebrews […]

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One Different Choice and You Wouldn’t Be Here

By Joe Barnett / July 6, 2024 / Comments Off on One Different Choice and You Wouldn’t Be Here

Dr. Fred Alexander, my college roommate and lifelong friend, chose a career in higher education. It was a close call, because early on he felt the tug of a different calling. As a young Navy Reservist, Fred blew the top off of pilot aptitude tests. The U.S. Navy pulled out all the stops to convince […]

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Mother

By Joe Barnett / May 11, 2024 / Comments Off on Mother

There are a handful of things in my life that have always been there—changeless, consistent, dependable: the sun has not failed to rise or set since the day I was born; the earth has not perceptibly changed its spin in my lifetime; God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And then, there is my […]

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Living Happily Ever After

By Joe Barnett / March 30, 2024 / Comments Off on Living Happily Ever After

A group of grieving women who watched Jesus die on Friday trudged to the tomb to anoint his body on Sunday. But the tomb was empty. “He is not here,” an angel told them; “he has risen!” Risen? Who could believe such a thing? His disciples should have. He had told them more than once […]

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O Captain! My Captain!

By Joe Barnett / March 2, 2024 / Comments Off on O Captain! My Captain!

Limping ashore after decades at sea, he was taunted: “You don’t have much to show for all those years, do you?” “No, not much,” said the old salt who had spent years sailing with Sir Francis Drake. “I’ve been cold, hungry, sick, scared, and shipwrecked. But I am certain of one thing: I have been […]

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God Forgives—and Forgets

By Joe Barnett / February 3, 2024 / Comments Off on God Forgives—and Forgets

People thought she was whacko. She claimed that she and God talked one-on-one every night and that he told her about the shenanigans of people who thought their secrets were, well, secret. Someone advised her to validate these alleged conversations by asking her minister if she was really talking with God or hallucinating. Tormented by […]

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News that Doesn’t Make the News

By Joe Barnett / January 6, 2024 / Comments Off on News that Doesn’t Make the News

Day to day, year to year, news remains pretty much the same: A war going on somewhere. Violence on some street in our hometown. People fighting for position, power, a bigger slice of the pie. Hunger, with pictures so appalling we have to look away. Those who have fallen on hard times living in poverty […]

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What Will Matter?

By Joe Barnett / December 9, 2023 / Comments Off on What Will Matter?

Ready or not, one day it will be over. There’ll be no more sunrises, sunsets, or birthdays. Position and possessions will be history. Whether you lived in a castle or a cottage will be irrelevant. All you accumulated, both treasures and trinkets, will pass to someone else. Your proficiency, polish, and pedigree will be meaningless. […]

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