Gaining a heart of wisdom
We picked raspberries a couple of weeks ago -- the free kind that grow along the edges of fields and in the company of thistles. They were succulent. I could wrap words around a description of raspberry picking: the gentle encompassing pressure that releases a perfectly ripe berry from its stem; the empty white cone… Continue reading Life, Life, and More Life
"One death is a tragedy. One million deaths is a statistic." ~Joseph Stalin Banking on this banality of evil, the Khmer Rouge murdered or starved 1.7 million Cambodian citizens during the years in which they were in power, all with an eye toward establishing themselves and their Community ideology. Having wiped out 25%… Continue reading Love, Faith, and Courage in the Killing Fields
In this election year, I've heard it said that foreign policy doesn't fit on a bumper sticker. True enough, and I would go on to say that theology doesn't either, but that doesn't stop us from trying to put it there. One bumper sticker that's been around for decades reads: "Prayer Changes Things." You've… Continue reading Where Faith and History Intersect
The only thing better than a good biography is SEVEN good biographies, and that's what Eric Metaxas offers in 7 Women and the Secret of Their Greatness. Through touching down at seven distinct historical and geographical points, my mind was coaxed beyond its tendency to "see everything in the dark glass of [my] own era, with… Continue reading Seven Women. Seven Virtues.
As a child of the Cold War era, I learned a chilling fascination for anything to do with "The Iron Curtain." When my high school music teacher started spending her summer vacations on short-term missions trips to Eastern Europe, I was certain that I, too, would be called to minister in lands closed to the… Continue reading Brother Andrew: Still Opening Doors
Can we find an actor with the earnest manner and unassuming heroism of Jimmy Stewart? Is there an actress with the grace and gentility of Donna Reed to play the female lead? I humbly submit 'Til We Meet Again: A Memoir of Love and War as a candidate for re-enactment on the big screen. Nailing the… Continue reading The Good Wound
It's a delightful alchemy that takes geography and the events of historical context, and then blends in the like-mindedness and the variations of two distinct personalities. Common enough, this is the science of friendship that is traced and recorded by Randy Petersen in The Printer and the Preacher because, every once in a while, the melding of a friendship has historical impact,… Continue reading Ben and George: The Friendship that Invented America
Living Our Days 