I grew up with a traditional definition of grace as God’s unmerited favor. With time, my definition had to flip-flop and expand. What if grace were better defined as unfavored merit—as God’s... ...
Unfinished work with our parents or siblings will haunt us and continually erode other relationships if we do not give it our careful, prayerful attention. ...
At first, I couldn’t understand the loss I felt when I heard Fred Schweg had died. ...
Gail was in her 40s when her mother died suddenly. The loss was a blow. Her father had died years before, and Gail had not married. She'd expected to enjoy her mother for...
Once a month, I visit a friend who lives about an hour away. Bob is always eager to see visitors. He is, in a manner of speaking, homebound, living in a 10-by-13 foot...
Recently, I led a retreat at Pecos Abbey in New Mexico with Glandion Carney. Both Glandion and I are members of the Renovaré Ministry Team, a Christian Renewal Movement that leads retreats and...
When a stranger spit on me because my skin color was different from hers, I wondered how anyone could hate another person just because of pigment differences. ...
And when he had stepped out of the boat, immediately a man out of the tombs with an unclean spirit met him. He lived among the tombs; and no one could restrain him...
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” ...
On July the fourth, 1939, Lou Gehrig stood before 60,000 fans in Yankee Stadium to bid farewell to the game he loved. Two years later, he died of the disease that now bears his name. Every...
For me, one of the most powerful insights into the mind and heart of a true hero is in an almost offhand remark of St. Paul’s. He writes from prison in Rome to...
“Life is difficult.” With those three words, Scott Peck launched what soon became a publishing phenomenon—The Road Less Traveled, which remained on...
A Simple Man, A Simple Woman ...
One hundred days: 800,000 people dead. ...
In journaling, maintain the perspective that its value is in the process, not the end product. We journal out of faith. We...
Dee Mitchell was all about law school. In our undergraduate years, she was the front-row student in freshman geography with all the right answers. In campus government, she was the senator who...
Words are sneaky creatures that don’t carry the proper load of meaning unless we choose them carefully. One youngster wrote in a church school: “St. Paul cavorted to Christianity. He preached...
As a young, short, and skinny athlete, Anthony "Spud" Webb was never an early pick. He was the guy overlooked and underestimated in junior high, high school, even junior college. What would you...
Here is an unforgettable integrity sentence from St. Paul: “We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers, constantly remembering before our God and Father your...
The American Puritans were a hardy folk. When first set ashore on this continent, they found no Holiday Inns, no brightly lit BP gas marts. Fast food was as unheard of as indoor...
