On my desk is a memo board of reminders. Pinned on it is a list, “10 Habits for Great Health” that I cut out of a nutrition magazine years ago. Recently, I was stunned that even though I see this list every day, I could only remember four items. The list was such a familiar…
“It’s not my fault!” So says Han Solo in The Empire Strikes Back when his ship is attacked and there seems to be no escape, only because a repair was not made. When he says it, you wonder if he bears at least some responsibility for his predicament but doesn’t want to admit it. I’ve…
At one hundred dollars, Loretta’s utility bill was much higher than usual. “But the Lord will provide,” she told her son. That same day she received a text from her youngest brother. “Loretta, you’re always encouraging me, and I want to thank you. Look in your mail for something from me.” That afternoon in her…
My dad was a hard worker on our farm and in the factory but not necessarily a handyman. Sometimes when a tractor or furnace or plumbing failed, a neighbor or friend would offer to fix it. Dad offered to pay even though he knew he couldn’t afford as much as they deserved. But they wouldn’t…
What’s so good about Good Friday? Why isn’t the day called Bad or Sad Friday? After all, it’s meant to be a day of sorrowful reflection, not a day of celebration. Sometimes, this day takes other names, such as Holy Friday. In Germany, it’s called Karfreitag, or Sorrowful Friday. So where did we get the…
When I broke my upper arm, my friend Rex surprised me by shipping a care box of frozen soups with a beautiful silver ladle. I was deeply touched and kept the ladle long after consuming the soup. My arm has healed and dear Rex has since passed away but his gesture of love continues to…
At a job interview, Carol was asked repeatedly, “Why did you leave your previous job?” The interviewer had an inkling of the conflict she’d had with her former employer and wanted to know what had happened. While acknowledging “differences in working style,” Carol refused to divulge her opinion of her former boss, believing that it…
Hudson Taylor was troubled. He’d left England to share the gospel about Christ in China, and ministry—though challenging—had gone well. But in 1865, as he considered sending more people to minister to a more dangerous part of the country, without protection, he felt “intense conflict.” Later, after wrestling with God in prayer, he wrote: “The…
To become a lawyer in California, Maxcy Filer had to pass the state’s grueling, three-day bar exam. So he took it not once, not twice, but forty-eight times before passing the tough test. His goal? To advocate for the underprivileged in Compton, his beloved city. Between his first and last attempts at passing the exam—across…
Although it was Palm Sunday, a day to celebrate the triumphal entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem, for Mary Edwar it became a time of deep pain. Leaving their church after the service, she and her husband, Kareem, were holding hands when a bomb went off. The device killed Kareem and injured Mary, causing her to…