
An Awakening
On a Saturday in May, over seven thousand people were baptized at an event called Baptize California at Huntington Beach. Skeptics might dismiss it, but what if it is evidence of the latest spiritual awakening? I say “latest” because it has happened before in America....
Transformed Community
Martin Shaw is an author and former professor at Stanford University. His specialty is mythology and storytelling. His best story is about his own spiritual journey. Shaw grew up in a religious home. As a young man, he played in a rock band until tinnitus stopped him....
The Grand Designer
Engineering is applied math and science. During my career as a civil engineer, I observed how math and science improved the tools of the trade. Let me borrow from that to address one of mankind’s ultimate questions. My practice area was water hydraulics. Decades ago,...
The Unlikely Rescue
April 29, 1975 was a fateful and chaotic day in Vietnam. Anyone associated with the Americans was frantic to leave Saigon by any means available. The North Vietnamese were about to overrun the city. Major Buang was a South Vietnamese pilot. In a desperate attempt to...
Life-Changing Power
It was the 1950’s, but to this family it might as well have been the 1850’s. They lived in a log house near the swamps of Louisiana. No electricity. No running water. Their food came from subsistence farming, hunting, and fishing. It was common in that time and place...
Fingerprints
Jon Kahn is a singer/songwriter whose star is on the rise. Correlation is not causation, but it’s notable that his rising interest in faith is coincident with his success as an artist. Kahn was not raised in a religious home. As a boy he had profound questions about...
Ten Promises
I step into the dimly lit room. A reverent hush restrains those gathered there. We all have the same objective - to witness the Dead Sea Scrolls on display at the Reagan Presidential Library. The focal point of the display is the Ten Commandments – the oldest existing...
The Great Communicator
I stood alone on the hilltop. It was a cool, Spring morning. I enjoyed the distant vistas. I also envisioned the large crowd of mourners who once gathered here for a sunset ceremony to remember and bury Ronald Reagan. The other early birds at the Reagan Presidential...
Sweet Aroma
Ed Tuttle was a graphic designer for a large manufacturer. He was also a follower of Christ. Ed befriended the new guy, Eric, at work. That turned out to be providential. Eric was underemployed as a proofreader. His elite Yale education prepared him for loftier...
Walk On High Places
Patty Morin lives with unspeakable grief. In 2023, her daughter Rachel, a 37-year-old mother of five, was murdered on a hiking trail in Maryland. Because Patty was willing to talk about it, you can listen and learn. To her, pain and suffering do not speak the last...
Walk of a Lifetime
It was a warm summer morning adorned with birds and flowers. I strolled along the shady, level path, realizing I may never pass this way again. I was on Addison’s Walk on the grounds of Magdalen College in Oxford, England, a long way from home. This is the path where...
The Enchanted Life
After working for several years at a center for women in crisis, Louise Perry changed her mind about morality. She is a writer for the Daily Mail and is a staunch advocate for women’s rights. She published a bestseller, The Case Against the Sexual Revolution (2022)....
A Time to Laugh
Long ago, he grew up on a farm nearby. He lived most of his life elsewhere. On the day of his memorial service, something happened. Let’s just say I hope he liked dogs! I didn’t know the family. Their patriarch had passed months prior. They wished for a simple...
Who Am I?
Fifteen million people listen to the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. His guest list includes the likes of psychologist Jordan Peterson, philosopher Sam Harris, and politicians from all over the map. The sheer size of his audience means Rogan can amplify voices like few...
Questioning Teens
She was only 17 or 18 years old when we met. I’m not sure if her noisy self-confidence was a bluff or self-deception. Either way, she had her peers cowed. She figured she had worked out all the answers about life and the universe, including her loosely articulated...
The Successful Journey
Aaron Rogers received no Division 1 college football scholarship offers. Nor was he the first quarterback selected in the 2005 NFL draft. But he went on to win the league MVP multiple times. His Packers won the Super Bowl in 2011. Rogers’s journey to success left him...
What If It’s True?
Ian Hutchinson is Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering at MIT. He is a leader in nuclear fusion research and its practical use for carbon-free power generation. He is an eminent scientist who is also a Christian. Hutchinson comes from a non-religious British...
Platforming Faith
Platforming Faith Will Howard and Riley Leonard are quarterbacks on the college football teams that competed in the national championship game this year. They are also Christians, and outspoken about it. “Before I say anything, I’ve just got to give my Lord and Savior...
Chimney Bricks and Love Letters
If you had visited my man cave a few years ago, you would have seen a stack of bricks, a pile of sand, and sacks of mortar. If you visit me now, we could escape the winter cold by sitting near the wood stove. Assuming you notice the brickwork, at no point would you...
Matilda’s Cake
Aunt Matilda, as told by Oxford professor John Lennox, bakes a cake. A group of top scientists analyze it. Biochemists describe the proteins and fats. Chemists list the interaction of elements involved. Physicists talk about the fundamental particles. Mathematicians...
Thinking Christianly
Jordan Peterson, a Canadian psychologist, became popular with his book 12 Rules for Life (2018). Tom Holland is a British expert in classical and medieval history. His book Dominion (2019) traces the Christian roots of Western Civilization. These modern thinkers are...
Wise Blood
Flannery O’Connor published her first novel, Wise Blood, in 1952. She lived near Milledgeville, Georgia before disease took her life in 1964 (age 39). The abrasive characters she developed in southern gothic writing style gave voice to her commentary on the cultural...
A Faith Journey
Niall Ferguson is a British academic with ties to Oxford and Harvard Universities. In 2004, Time magazine listed him among the most influential people in the world. He is yet another example of someone who thinks deeply about faith and finds himself on a journey....
The Unfinished Chat
She was a young woman, maybe early thirties. We were chatting in a public place… small talk. When our conversation turned Godward I asked, “Do you have a faith?” She pondered, then looked at me. “I think I can honestly say I’ve given it my best effort...” Just then we...
The Born-Again President
After I spoke at a service at Maranatha Church in Plains, Georgia some years ago, a familiar figure made his way toward me. He extended his hand saying, "I'm Jimmy Carter." Of course I knew that, but it shows what an unassuming and gracious man he was. During his...
New Year’s Renewal
“Pete” was an addicted, adulterous, angry man. His was a maudlin story of mistreatment, injustice, and rejection. Poor Pete! What he needed was a New Year’s resolution, right? Another addict once told me he wished he could remove his brain, scrub it, and put it back...
This Christmas Day
I pray a prayer this Christmas Day From deep within my heart. Peace on earth goodwill to men May wars all end, never start. I forgive someone this Christmas Day It’s something I must do. Since You forgave me of my sins Then I forgive others, too. I give a gift this...
The Way Home
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,...
Why Christmas?
“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...
Extremes of Christmas
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...
The Thankful Witness
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 Broken Jar
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...
All Is Gain
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...
Stay Focused
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...
No Longer Dead
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...
Hunger To Know
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...
Glad For October
“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...
Not Walking Alone
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...
The Story of You
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...
Romance of Restlessness
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...
The Light Rocks
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...
Attractive To You
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...
Near Miss
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...
Work Skill
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...
Believe It Or NOT
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....
Your Message
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...
Steady, Unrelenting
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...
Ayaan Alie Part Two
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...
Not Ashamed
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...
Beautiful Clues
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...