Don’t Forget
Some mornings as I leave for work, my wife says to me, “Don’t forget to . . .” Later in the day, she’ll phone me and ask, “Did you forget?”
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The Secret Chamber
People have some needs that are excruciatingly deep. Poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote, “Never morning wore to evening, but some heart did break.”
Read More »Gloating At The Enemy
Obadiah is the shortest book in the Old Testament. Yet hidden away in its brief record is a vital question that affects us all: How should we respond when we see an enemy experience misfortune?
Read More »A Mighty Stream
When I was a young teenager, my dad, uncles, cousins, and I went trout fishing at the head waters of the Sacramento River in California. The source of the river is melted snow, so the water was swift, clear, cold, and refreshing. My cousins and I couldn’t resist stepping into the cool current while angling for rainbow trout.
Read More »God Is Here
Leslie and her two daughters were about to be evicted from their home. Although Leslie believed that God could help, so far He hadn’t given a clue as to how. She wondered, Where is God? As she drove to the courthouse, she prayed for God’s intervention. Then she heard a song on the radio proclaiming, “God is here! Let the brokenhearted rejoice.” Could this be the assurance from God that she was longing to hear?
Read More »The Country Of Old Age
In the book Another Country, author Mary Pipher met with people in their seventies, eighties, and nineties who were confronting many different life situations.
Read More »Neighborly Love
It would have been simpler just to buy a new hair dryer. But determined to save a buck, I decided to fix it myself. In order to loosen the screw that was buried deep in the handle, I took out the ultimate handyman’s helper—my pocket knife. As I put pressure on the knife to turn the screw, the blade folded back—on my finger.
Read More »Can You Spare A Dime?
In her insightful book The Forgotten Man, Amity Shlaes provides fascinating stories about what life was like during the Great Depression in the US. At the center of that economic drama was “the forgotten man,” a term used for the countless individuals who were thrown out of work.
Read More »Help With A Home Run
Sara Tucholsky, a softball player for Western Oregon University, hit the first home run of her life in a game against Central Washington. But she nearly didn’t get credit for it. As she rounded first base in excitement, she missed it! When she wheeled back to correct her mistake, she injured her knee. Crying, she crawled back to the base. By rule, she had to touch all four bases on her own for the home run to count. Her teammates could not assist her in any way.
Read More »God’s Embrace
Soon after her family left for the evening, Carol started to think that her hospital room must be the loneliest place in the world. Nighttime had fallen, her fears about her illness were back, and she felt overwhelming despair as she lay there alone.
Read More »Goats For Jesus
When Dave and Joy Mueller felt God prompting them to move to Sudan as missionaries, all they knew was that they would be helping to build a hospital in that war-ravaged land. How could they know that goats would be in their future?
Read More »The Power Of Love
The documentary film Young@Heart gives a rollicking look at a senior chorus of 24 singers whose average age is 80. Filled with humor and poignant moments, the film includes this remarkable singing group’s deeply moving performance at a New England prison. When the concert concludes, the singers walk into the audience, greeting the surprised prisoners with handshakes and hugs.
Read More »Getting Involved
Isn’t anybody going to help that poor guy?” Fred exclaimed as he and my husband, Tom, realized what had been causing traffic to creep down the busy five-lane road. A man lay sprawled between the lanes, bicycle on top of him, as vehicles simply drove around him. Fred turned on the warning flashers and blocked traffic with his car. Then both guys jumped out to help the shaken man.
Read More »Humility And Greatness
As a 7-year-old, Richard Bernstein admired Jackie Robinson’s athletic ability and courage as the first African-American man to play Major League baseball in the modern era. A few years later, while working at a small-town golf course, Bernstein was astonished to find himself carrying the bag of his hero, Jackie Robinson. When rain postponed the game, Robinson held an umbrella over the two of them and shared his chocolate bar with the young caddy. Writing in The International Herald Tribune, Bernstein cited that humble act of kindness as a mark of greatness he has never forgotten.
Read More »Servant-Friendship
Don Tack wanted to know what life was like for homeless people. So he concealed his identity and went to live on the streets of his city. He found out that food and shelter were offered by many organizations. At one shelter he could spend the night if he listened to a sermon beforehand. He appreciated the guest speaker’s message and wanted to talk with him afterward. But as Don reached out to shake the man’s hand and asked if he could talk with him, the speaker walked right past him as if he didn’t exist.
Read More »Resolve
I once decorated a notebook with definitions of the words idea, thought, opinion, preference, belief, and conviction to remind myself that they do not mean the same thing. The temptation to elevate an opinion to the level of a conviction can be strong, but doing so is wrong, as we learn from Romans 14.
Read More »Brotherhood Of The Sea
On August 8, 2005, the world learned of the dramatic rescue of seven Russian sailors trapped in a small sub entangled in a fishing net. The men had survived 3 cold, dark days on the bottom of the ocean and had less than 6 hours of oxygen left. Meanwhile, up above, a frantic, unified rescue effort by Russian, Japanese, British, and American personnel was underway. Finally, the sub was freed. The Russian Defense Minister praised the operation, saying, “We have seen in deeds, not in words, what the brotherhood of the sea means.”
Read More »Curiosity Or Compassion?
Why is it that when we hear about someone who is suffering, we are more interested in the details of what, why, when, and where than we are about how we can help?
Read More »Moody Artwork
British and American computer scientists have created artwork that changes according to how the viewer feels. The computer program analyzes the position and shape of the mouth, the angle of the brows, the openness of the eyes, and five other facial features to determine the viewer’s emotional state. The artwork then alters, based on the viewer’s mood. If joy is seen on the face, the artwork will show up in bright colors. If there’s a scowl, the image will become dark and somber.
Read More »Agents Of Grace
Jesus’ most memorable story, The Prodigal Son, ends with a banquet scene, featuring as its hero a good-for-nothing who has soiled the family reputation. Those judged undesirable by everyone else—like the prodigal son—are infinitely desirable to God. When one of them turns to God, a party breaks out (Luke 15:22-24).
Read More »Active Compassion
Every so often when I walk into my office in the morning, I find a surprise on my desk. Not long ago the item was a sunflower coffee mug dropped off by a fellow employee. She had seen it in a shop and knew it would cheer up my wife—so she bought it and left it on my desk with an encouraging note.
Read More »Looking Out For Others
In giving of ourselves, we manifest the essence of Jesus’ character, for it has always been His nature to think more about others than He thinks of Himself. Why else would He humble Himself and become “obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross” (Phil. 2:8).
Read More »Megan’s Heart
When Megan was in third grade, she kept coming home from school without her winter gloves. It drove her mom crazy because she had to keep buying new ones, which the family couldn’t afford. One day Mom got angry and said, “Megan, you’ve got to be more responsible. This can’t go on!”
Read More »For The Children
As the teenagers left Robin’s Nest orphanage near Montego Bay, Jamaica, many of them were in tears.
Read More »A Boy’s Lunch
Once I made the mistake of thinking I could single-handedly finish a 28-ounce steak at a restaurant. I had the remainder boxed up to take home. I thought, At least it will give me another feast to look forward to.
Read More »Fearing The Worst
When I learned I needed chemotherapy, my biggest fear was losing my hair. I knew this was a vain thought and should have been a minor concern, but I rationalized that it was okay to grieve what the Bible calls a woman’s glory (1 Cor. 11:15).
Read More »For The Poor
The man sits on the street corner day after day, begging for money. He’s poor and desperate for a little cash to spend on food.
Read More »A Heart For The Homeless
Members of the First Presbyterian Church in Snohomish, Washington, had a large supply of leftovers from the celebration of their 125th anniversary. They decided to give the food to the women and children in a nearby homeless shelter. As a chilling rain poured down outside, volunteers unloaded containers, one of which included a large cake. Someone remarked, “I hope today is somebody’s birthday.” A homeless woman replied, “Every day inside is a holiday.”
Read More »“I Did That Too”
Our friend Barbara Leavitt loved flowers. Her home was a garden of rare beauty and sweet fragrance, and so was her life. Her presence was like a delightful bouquet.
Read More »Family Therapy
Dr. Paul Brand, a medical missionary in India, observed an unusual phenomenon with several of his patients. When they were recovering from surgery in his hospital, some family members would bring hot meals to them. At night a relative would sleep on the floor under the bed of the recovering patient. When patients awoke in pain, their loved ones would gently massage them until they went back to sleep.
Read More »True Sacrifice
Teenagers amaze me. So many of them love life with grand passion and face it with unrelenting optimism. Sometimes they demonstrate the Christian life in ways adults can only hope to emulate.
Read More »Loving The Unlovable
Zacchaeus was easy to dislike. As a tax collector for an oppressive occupying government, he made himself rich by overcharging his countrymen. Yet, to the consternation of the crowd, Jesus honored him by going to his house and eating with him.
Read More »"I Hurt For You"
When my sons were young, one of them stubbed his toe and grimaced with pain. Seeing him trying bravely to bear the agony of those moments, I said, “Son, I’m truly sorry. My toe hurts for you.”
Read More »The Right Signal
It was a tragic mistake. On July 3, 1988, the guided-missile cruiser USS Vincennes shot down an Iranian airliner with 290 souls aboard. All were lost. The ship’s captain mistakenly thought they were under attack by an F-14 Iranian fighter.
Read More »A Good Neighbor
When Fred Rogers died February 27, 2003, scores of newspapers carried the story as front-page news, and almost every headline included the word neighbor. As host of the long-running children’s television show Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, he was well known to millions of children and their parents as a kind, gentle, warm person who genuinely believed “each person is special, deep inside, just the way they are.”
Read More »Caring Prayer
I recently received an e-mail from someone I didn’t know. It was from a teenager who set a great example we all can learn from. His e-mail showed how much he believed in the power of prayer.
Read More »The Gift Of Obedience
It’s that time of year again when people think about God and goodwill more than they do at any other time. It seems that the nearer we get to Christmas, the more we notice that people have a willingness to express an interest in religious things. Both church attendance and church activities increase.
Read More »Parents Who Pray
A young mother sent these lines to a magazine: “I wish I could wrap my children in bubble wrap to protect them from the big, bad world outside.”
Read More »People God Can Use
Evangelist Franklin Graham wrote, “If we want to become the type of people that God can use anytime, anywhere, anyplace, we must offer ourselves, our homes, our kitchens, and our living rooms as outposts for the kingdom of God.” People who practice these words are fulfilling Paul’s challenge to “be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share” (1 Timothy 6:18).
Read More »A Circle Of Compassion
Following the death of our 17-year-old daughter in a car accident in June 2002, each member of our family handled the loss differently. For my wife, among the most helpful sources of comfort were visits from moms who had also lost a child in an accident.
Read More »Gestures Of Love
Cards. Hundreds and hundreds of cards. Our mail carrier must have thought we were going for a world record. They came by the stack—day after day after day.
Read More »Consider The Poor
You may have heard of the blessings Jesus spoke of in His Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:1-10). Here’s a “blessing” from the Old Testament that is less well-known: “Blessed is he who considers the poor” (Psalm 41:1).
Read More »Eyes Of Compassion
As Francisco Venegas, a school custodian in Colorado, watched the children on the playground, he saw a 9-year-old girl fall off a bench for no apparent reason. Another time he noticed her face twisted in a strange expression. Sensing that something was wrong, Francisco reported what he had seen to the school office.
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