Several times in the New Testament, the Christian life is compared to an athletic event. In the letter to the Hebrews, the writer uses the image of a runner in a race: ...
Make a phone call. Grab a cup of coffee on the way to a meeting. Check email. Simple acts define a daily routine. Nothing extraordinary. But in the simplest actions and dailyness of...
In his second letter to Timothy, St. Paul gave his young friend wise advice: As for you, always be steady, endure suffering to do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. (2 Tim. 4:5) ...
For some members of the human family, the fear of speaking in front of a live audience rates close to the fear of dying. Trembling, dry mouth, perspiration, and various hues of pigment...
In Romans, chapters 1–11, Paul declares that God's grace is the most absolute fact in all creation. In these chapters of profound theological reasoning, he forcefully concludes that God's grace...
I've grown to dread telling people what I do for a living. I'm a writer, I'll say. ...
In 1875, the year before the Battle at Little Big Horn, a 30-year-old single woman named Mary C. Collins, living in eastern Iowa, accepted an appointment as a missionary/teacher on the Great Sioux...
Mother Teresa was known worldwide for her care of the poor and outcast on the streets of Calcutta. Yet she said, “I do nothing of my own. God does it. I am a...
Moses led his people out of slavery but could not enter the Promised Land. Likewise, our leadership may call us to endure...
A knot in the stomach. Feeling trapped, dreading human contact, struggling to be “normal” when our inner dialogue is anything but. Amid fatigue, anxiety, insomnia—we want only to sleep. We wonder, ...
The novelist Walker Percy stresses how unusual it is to find a truly whole person. He asks whether if you met someone on the sidewalk for the first time, greeted the person cordially...
If you think adolescence is a crazy time, try midlife. Last month, not one but two top journalists publicly dive-bombed their careers; and, not coincidentally, both were at that awkward age when...
In a world of competing and often contradictory perspectives, how do we make good decisions? Christians believe that obedience to God's will...
Twenty years ago, I resigned from a large Texas electronics firm to found my own small company. Before I made the leap, I spent years studying all the tips I could find for...
The Apostle Paul concludes his list of Christian attributes, a mini Book of Virtues, with this: “Whatever work you may have to do, [in speech or action,] do everything in the name of...
The note was simple. Terse. Not particularly gracious. ...
While they were eating, Jesus took a piece of bread, gave a prayer of thanks, broke it, and gave it to his disciples, "Take it," he said, "this is my body." Then he...
The everyday life of faith ultimately is pretty simple and straightforward stuff—simple, not necessarily easy. While there are many complex nuances of thoughtful reflection and application of Christian faith to each person’s everyday...
A depressed, dejected Elijah staggers off into the wilderness. He collapses under a broom tree, one of the few sources of shade in the baked desert region. Steeped in a gloomy spirit, he...
“Dad, where’re our seats? Are they this way?” ...
