The Fear of Risk
Years ago, I went scuba diving into a shark-feeding frenzy with two of my kids. We descended sixty feet to the ocean floor, knelt in a large circle, …
Hope
What Can I Learn from Cancer?
Four weeks ago, my doctor told me that recent tests indicate a high likelihood I have kidney cancer. The tests were the result of an appointment …
Christian Meditation
In February 1978, I sensed God call me to spend a summer volunteering on a kibbutz in Israel (a communal farm that provides room and board for six …
We Are Strangers in a Strange Land
“My wife’s ninety-year-old mother died last Thursday and we mourn. Someone reminded me that when we grieve, “we do not grieve like those who have no …
The Riddle of the Psalms
For the last forty years, my prayer time has started with the Psalms. And for forty years they have alternately given me hope and then pulled that rug …
Deathbed Advice
My father died twenty years ago last Friday, April Fool’s Day, 1996. (I often wonder if he planned that day.) A week before his death, knowing his …
The Hope of Our Suffering
As a college student, I wanted to spend a summer abroad, but money was so tight that Raman noodles were my Sunday treat. I found a communal farm in …
We Are Strangers in a Strange Land
I grew up in a family that camped. My father was a pastor who got four weeks of vacation. We took all four weeks at once, camping the whole month of …
Spiritual Insanity
A couple years ago I met with a twenty-eight-year-old woman who told me of a struggle she faced. She was dissatisfied. Growing up, she had sensible …
What About When Life Overwhelms You?
[To listen to a reading of this article, click here.] I hate leaving for trips, but I also—sometimes—hate returning. There is so much to do. There are …
The Unimaginable Hope of the Tests of God
When we think about the tests of God, most of us shudder. Yet I believe that they can be a key to Hope and Joy. Let me explain. I began flying lessons …