Hilma Untinen was born October 8, 1910, in a log cabin in Northern Minnesota—the ninth of eleven children born to poor Finnish immigrants. When she was 13 years old, her mother died. Hilma’s...
On the first day of classes, a new freshman walked out of the Princeton library feeling exalted by his new status and the ivied walls about him. Nearby, loafing on the grass, a...
“I grew up in a household where anger and resentment were served at every meal. In my home, love was a thing to be earned, never given. We got hugs for being good...
Once when I asked a friend how she was doing, she said, “Truthfully, I feel as if my life is going nowhere. I can’t get beyond Get on your mark, get set ...
In the book Halftime, Bob Buford identifies the point in life when a person begins to ask “What’s next?” or “Is this all there is?” He offers a way to look at the...
We tend to believe we are most effective when we are busy, and to an extent that is true. Tasks have to be performed, and goals have to be accomplished. ...
Through a set of desperate circumstances, I met Rob when he was 17 years old, homeless, and nearly hopeless. In the year that I served as his court-appointed advocate, Rob lived in three group...
“Never let me see you in this house again!” ...
Horatio Spafford was well acquainted with personal tragedy. Following the death of a young son, he watched most of his worldly investments go up in smoke in the Great Chicago Fire, and then he...
“Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.” Matthew 6:12, The Message ...
He was sitting on the curb, skateboard wedged under his knees, as my car approached the stop sign. He looked about age 16: brown skin, dreadlocks, baggy shorts, a basketball jersey that would have...
Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. ...
We live in times of impaired vision. People do not perceive God, because they fail to nurture the skill of looking for and finding Him in everyday life. Alertness to God is a...
My thirty-one years as a professor in higher education is coming to a close. Lately, I have found myself delightfully daydreaming about the prospect of leisurely mornings in meditation with...
In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem asking, "Where is the child who has been born king of...
Father Alfons Wachsmann was a Catholic priest in Berlin when Hitler gained power, and the clergyman made the mistake of allowing and...
The bill was addressed to Patricia Seebeck at 44 W. 6th Ave. We live at 36 W. 31st Avenue. The bill said...
One sentence written by St. Paul always has a special affect on me. He is writing to the Corinthians, and from the letter’s context, we know that a certain group of people there...
This past August in my home city in the Northeast, two Muslim men, the Imam of a local mosque and the owner...
The main character in Ernest Hemingway’s World War One novel, A Farewell to Arms, is disillusioned by hollow abstractions such as glory, honor, courage, sacrifice. “I had seen nothing sacred,” he...
