While meeting with a group of co-workers in Singapore, I looked out a seventh-story window and noticed a pile of huge, concrete blocks. When I asked about it, a colleague gave me some background. He said that since Singapore is a city-state built on an island, it is a common practice to test the stability […]
Your responses to the previous question have been so good! Let me see if I can pull our thoughts together and move us a bit further. Together, we have found a man named Job at the end of his moral and mental sanity. His stature as the wealthiest, most influential, and most blessed man in […]
On StoryCorps, a project of National Public Radio, I heard 73-year-old Walter Dean Myers tell a story that he says has forever changed the way he remembers his father. Myers, an author with almost 100 books to his name, recalls that at 14 he already had a love for writing. Since his parents didn’t have […]
While taking note of the trial of Anders Breivik, one of the issues that has come up is the fact that many people in Europe and America identify themselves as Christians in a cultural sense, without meaning that they are claiming a personal relationship with God. As a friend of the blog clarified, many believe […]
Thanks to all of you who have been willing to honestly think about what a follower of Christ brings to an issue as tragic as the death of Trayvon, and as controversial as the law’s reaction to George. In addition to appreciating so much of what you have already said, here’s where I am. Seems […]
In October 2011, 56 wild animals terrorized the town of Zanesville, Ohio. The owner of an exotic animal park, troubled by legal challenges and neighbor complaints, had lashed out against the community by deliberately opening his cages just before dark. Local authorities responded by warning neighbors, barricading roads, and closing schools. After a couple of […]
Have you ever noticed that some of us seem to have a low and suspicious view of human nature, while others find something to like and love in everyone? Jesus seemed to do both. Sometimes he’d call those who came to hear him evil people who knew how to do good things (Matt 7:11). Or […]
A science reporter for Public Radio International recently became interested in how many of us experience songs that suddenly pop into our heads and then play over and over until we wish we could get them out of our minds. We’ve talked here before about why we sometimes wake up with a song running through […]
As the suffering deepens in the Bama Amr district of Homs, Syria, waves of violent pre-spring storms have caused at least 27 deaths in several US states, with many injuries, whole communities devastated, thousands homeless, and countless traumatized. While most people in the Middle East and US Mid West will enjoy a normal weekend, an […]
There is such irony in our last conversation about Jesus’ words to “hate” family so as to give full attention to him (Luke 14:26). When any other religious leader asks for such commitment, most of us assume that the person is self-absorbed and dangerous. But for those who believe that the words of Luke 14:26 […]
