Life makes us wait. We wait to get our braces off, to finish school, to learn what college accepted us. We wait...
I've never been good at the whole obedience thing. As a teen I broke curfews, snuck out on dates, skipped classes, and generally believed rules were made to be broken. As a young...
The most important word in my Christian walk is hope. Well, faith also. But what is faith but hope for the unseen? Not all I hope for will happen this side of the...
for the gray nudge of dawn at the window ...
The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, "When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women, and set them on the...
"It is true that there is a silly, cowardly kind of optimism, which we must condemn. But optimism that is will for future should never be despised, even if it is proved wrong...
From the beginning of scripture to the end, from the Bible's first chapter through the last, God is at work to create and recreate. From the beginning, God invites us humans to join...
As Jesus ended his second year of ministry, everyone seemed confused about his identity. The Pharisees thought he was demon-possessed (Matt. 12:22). His kinfolk thought he was nuts (Mark 3:22). ...
I don't know when I started to think of God in terms of paradox—it was a long time ago. I was privileged to be reared by Christian parents who were honest about not...
Pregnant teenage girls and preppie teenage boys, each in their own worlds trying to make sense of it all. Jean's a teacher who listens to these disparate groups with their differing tales of woe....
Who of us has not grown up with the parental reminder, "Remember to say 'thank you'"? Thanks is one of those magic...
God of Creation, you made us to love with the love You so abundantly lavished on us through our Savior, Jesus Christ. On our own we cannot see people, events, even our own...
The author of the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes generally is considered the pessimist among the stable of biblical writers. His entire book is framed by the dirge, "Vanity of vanity, all is...
The nineteenth century Scottish preacher, Alexander MacLaren, once said, "Seek to cultivate a buoyant, joyous sense of the crowded kindnesses of God in your daily life." Many of those kindnesses...
Juan was a man in his forties or fifties in the cotton fields near my home in far West Texas, where I picked cotton sometimes after school and on Saturdays to make extra...
For some time now, I have thought of myself as a spiritual writer and am confident enough, when someone wants to know...
I was hungry and you fed me, thirsty and you gave me a drink; I was a stranger and you received me in your homes, naked and you clothed me; I was sick...
When I taught freshman composition, I called one lesson, "Wax on, Wax off." ...
C. S. Lewis once advised his godchild, Lucy Barfield, about life. "Remember that there are only three kinds of things anyone need ever do. (1) Things we ought to do; (2) Things we've got to do; ...
She was a slip of a girl. Five years old on her last birthday; long, soft brown hair and startlingly clear blue eyes. She was full of energy and creative fun, but she...
