Elizabeth Cochrane left New York to prove a point. She was a 25-year-old journalist. It was 1889. It was not the only time she set out to change perceptions about what women could do. This time, her plan was to travel around the world in less than 80 days. And yes,...

“To ask the right question,” said Psychiatrist Carl Jung, “is already half the solution to a problem.” People often ask a “why” question to solve a problem. Apparently, a certain young lady thought I was a problem. I was serving in a major disaster area. At a...

A simple shoebox, filled by a loving heart, travels around the world as a Christmas gift to a needy child. To participate in such an enterprise is to see firsthand the meeting of two extremes – great poverty and great love. Operation Christmas Child, a ministry of...

Whittaker Chambers was a household name in post-WWII America. He testified against fellow communist, Alger Hiss, in the “spy trial of the century” (1950). Despite his brush with infamy, he had reasons to be thankful. Thankfulness is not easy. It takes humility to...

The Geller family just wanted a little relief from living on the loud edge of chaos. They left their home in northern Israel for a day trip to the Hecht Museum. What awaited them was a new kind of distress, which most parents can relate to. The museum’s founder...

It was still dark when the flood waters leapt the banks of the river. Bill (not his real name) was in his house in a nearby grassy field. He lives alone, but he was not alone that day. By the time he awoke that morning and peered out of a window, the water was deep...

As of this writing, the election results are TBD. The levels of tension, angst, and rhetoric do not contribute to “a more perfect Union” as intended by the U.S. founders. How do Christians respond? Here are eight ways to focus your thoughts, whether your candidates...

Halloween is once again upon us. The modern version is yet another holiday meant for children to receive treats. Tricks are discouraged. So are any hints of celebrating evil. Hence the alternatives, like fall festivals and harvest celebrations. Glow-in-the dark...

The reason pawpaws came to mind nine years ago is lost in the frustrating mist of my memory. You may recall the children’s song, “Picking up pawpaws, putting ‘em in your pocket… way down yonder in the pawpaw patch.” Isn’t pawpaw an imaginary fruit? I mean, are...

“I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.” Maud Montgomery penned this line for the title character in her 1908 novel, “Anne of Green Gables.” The setting is based on Montgomery’s childhood home in Cavendish, Prince Edward Island, Canada. She describes...

It’s Friday. The morning news images are apocalyptic. Massive rainfall floats houses and vehicles downstream. Hurricane winds collapse trees and powerlines onto roadways. Authorities search for victims and close highways. You must be on the other side of the...

Actor Cole Hauser joined Morgan Freeman in making the film noir, “The Minute You Wake Up Dead” (2022). Critics mostly panned the movie, which is surprising given the star power of these two. In one scene Hauser’s character says, “You know what I've never understood...

Travel. Politics. Relationships. Money. These topics have something in common. I’ll call it the romance of restlessness, a deep, personal desire for something better, more, or different. My list here includes only a few objects of restlessness. George Bailey, the...

Alice Cooper, the “Godfather of Shock Rock,” shocked the music world when he announced he had become a Christian. He believes he is part of an inevitable spiritual awakening. “Humanity is craving for answers,” he said. “There is something better… If you don’t feel it...

Before Mike Ducker retired as CEO of FedEx Freight, I heard him speak to business professionals. In his talk, he offered ideas about managing adversity. But it was his opening statement that I found memorable. Ducker had an impressive run at FedEx. In 1975, he...

Jose Felipe thought he booked his trip on a different airline. He never boarded VoePass Flight 2283, which crashed in Brazil leaving no survivors. “Thank God we didn’t get on that plane,” he said. A presidential candidate literally dodged a bullet when a would-be...

You can energize your career and impact your workplace with this one skill. It makes you more likeable and is a component of effective leadership. Let me illustrate. Years ago, my boss dispatched me to the suburbs to meet with a city official. I was a project engineer...

I paused to chat with residents while walking along the road near a village on Carriacou Island. As I listened to their experiences in Hurricane Beryl, a lone vehicle approached and stopped. The driver expressed gratitude for the help coming to the devastated island....

I noticed a theme. After Hurricane Beryl, I deployed to Carriacou Island as a chaplain with a humanitarian aid team offering supplies and healthcare. Beryl damaged or destroyed most of the island’s buildings. It impacted all of the people. I listened to one man’s...

Paul Kingsworth sensed that he was the object of a steady, unrelenting pursuit. It was an unwelcome thought until he finally surrendered to it. Kingsworth is an Oxford-educated environmentalist, world traveler, and writer. In an article in “First Things,” he tells the...

After Ayaan Hirsi Ali wrote, “Why I Am Now a Christian,” she met her friend Richard Dawkins in a public forum. Here are two intellectuals, one current and one former atheist, having “The God Debate.” It was raw, personal, and oddly affectionate. After Ali suffered a...

Coach Joe Mazzulla shows us how it’s done. His Boston Celtics are NBA champions, so he knows something about basketball. But his press conferences prove he’s not ashamed to use reporters’ annoying questions to talk about what really matters. Most of Mazzulla’s players...

In the light of dusk, I studied the bridge from a distant vantage point. The Hercilio Luz Bridge is an elegant marvel of engineering. The longest suspension bridge in Brazil, it connects Santa Catarina Island to the mainland. But soon my gaze shifted to the peacefully...

“I call myself a cultural Christian,” said the outspoken atheist, Richard Dawkins. “I’m not a believer, but… I sort of feel at home in the Christian ethos.” There’s a problem, though. Dawkins would cut the flower of the Christian ethos from its root of Biblical truth....

I’ve never seen a Russell Brand show, but I find his spiritual journey interesting. I mentioned him in this space a year ago because he began making public comments about Jesus. “The teachings of Christ are more relevant now than they’ve ever been,” he said. He was on...

I didn’t expect to see that. I was with a team in southern Brazil looking for churches we could help respond to the devastating floods. We stepped inside a small church building. Instead of chairs, the room was wall to wall with cots and mattresses. They had converted...

Kendall Qualls’ future looked bleak. Facing limited options, his newly divorced mom moved her five children into housing project squalor in Harlem, NY. It was the 1960’s. The grimy stairwells reeked, and dark hallways hid lethargic addicts. She did the best she could...

“I heard the roar.” “I lost everything.” “I should be dead.” I hear such words when serving as a chaplain in natural disaster zones around the country. I am amazed at the resilience of survivors. After the initial shock, responses can vary from despair to anger....

If one of my sons died as a soldier, I would ask the question on the heart of every Gold Star Family. For what exactly did my son die? For his country? And what exactly is the U.S.A., given it’s not a continent or ethnic group? America is an idea. The founders...

I had visions of bright lights, a smoothly running stove bolt motor, and a responsive instrument cluster. But I was holding a rat’s nest snarl of old spliced wires, sketchy terminals, and rusty switches I had just pulled from the dash of my 1959 Chevrolet Apache. My...

“We have found a way to be OK,” she told me.  Being mom to more than the average two children per family is challenging enough. But when doctors diagnosed one of hers with a lifestyle-disrupting, chronic illness, the urgency of the moment was overwhelming. I was...

Toward the end of the film, “Barbie” (2023), Billie Eilish gives voice to the title character with “What Was I Made For?” which became a hit song. This is far more than the familiar plot of a toy wanting to be real. It is an example of culture expressing and framing...

In 1940, the newly opened Tacoma Narrows Bridge was the third-longest suspension bridge in the world. It was a beautiful engineering feat, until it wasn’t. One windy day, it began to twist and heave until it collapsed into a scrap heap of metal beams and cables. The...

Chris Coghlan was 15 when it happened. It was 2001. He had just finished exams for his sophomore year. He arrived home to a gathering of cars and people. He stepped inside, joking about a party in his honor. Then he saw his mom’s face. His dad had been killed in a...

I learned a cultural lesson living in Haiti. It was not uncommon for a friend to take my hand as we walked in public. The gesture prevented other pedestrians from interrupting our conversation. In our culture, handholding is a public display of affection or practical...

Tim Keller tells the story of Kevin, who worked on Wall Street at J.P. Morgan. Kevin was an atheist with stubborn doubts about God. But he had doubts about his doubts, so he and his wife began attending Redeemer Church. They met believers who were smart and...

In the movie, Forrest Gump just feels like running. While he runs, he thinks about Mama, Bubba, Lt. Dan and especially Jenny. As he crisscrosses the country and contemplates his life experiences, a young man runs alongside Gump. “An alarm went off in my head! Here’s...

Scott Hamilton won Olympic gold in 1984 as a figure skater. He became successful as a professional skater and media personality. But something was happening behind the scenes. That’s the rest of the story. Hamilton was adopted at six weeks old. As a child, a rare...

Michael Shellenberger was a “Hero of the Environment” according to Time magazine in 2008. But he soon became disillusioned with the activism that earned him that label. In 2020, he published a book, Apocalypse Never,explaining his new take on environmental issues. To...

It was a cold and foggy night last December. I was on the train to London. At one stop a young woman boarded and sat just across from me. She wore an elegant, burgundy dress and delicate jewelry. In her arms were a dozen red roses. Her wistful smile suggested a tender...

Uwe Holmer didn’t mean to have a moment of fame. He was simply a German Lutheran pastor who lived his faith in a way that astounded his fellow countrymen. As a college student in 1953, Holmer bid his family goodbye as they escaped East Germany. He stayed behind...

Ron Hamilton was living the dream. After college, he married his sweetheart and began his career in the music industry. Then came the crisis. At age 28, Hamilton’s doctors discovered cancer in his eye. He had to lose that eye to save his life. How would you handle a...

“I got you, babe” plays on the clock radio, waking Phil Connors to face the same day yet again. Bill Murray played the lead in the film, “Groundhog Day” (1993). Phil discovers he is trapped in a time loop, experiencing that same song, day, and people over and over. To...

Martin Luther King, Jr. inspired many with his words and deeds. During his 1957 Christmas sermon in Montgomery, Alabama, he based his strategy of non-violence on Jesus’ admonition to love your enemy. “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that,” King...

The New Year is traditionally a time to think about new beginnings. The turning of the calendar represents a blank slate, a time to consider setting aside the old in favor of the new. The whole holiday season is an invitation to reflect, with time off work and visits...

I would like to offer you a New Year’s resolution. It may be the single most powerful change agent in your life. It is simply, listen to God. The new House Speaker Mike Johnson says he does. “I am a Bible-believing Christian,” he said. To know how he thinks about...