Troubles are equal opportunities events, having no regard for social class status, race or ethnicity, gender, or occupation. Everyone at some time or another will suffer a trial or tribulation that seems too overwhelming to survive. One trouble that often appears too dark and deep to weather is an attempt to defame our character by... Continue Reading →
One of the first sermons I ever heard was titled, "How Big is Your God?" I must have been in my early teens then, and I thought the question was strange, because it seemed to suggest that there were different gods and that they varied in sizes and, I guessed, in the power to help... Continue Reading →
After years of working in corporate America and academia, you would think that I would have overcome my inefficient ways, but, alas, no! I am a disorganized procrastinator, meaning that not only do I wait until the last minute to do anything, but because nothing in my life is organized, I waste or fail to... Continue Reading →
It is less than a week before Douglas and I will  begin our great adventure. Like the swallows, we will be long-distance migrants, flying a great distances have our soul needs met. For me, traveling seems to be in my blood. I need to experience life in different places, to feel truly connected to the... Continue Reading →
I was having a beautiful day at work, waiting for lunch to come so that I could go to the fast-food place across the road from my job for my daily portion of potatoes. The road that separated us from the place of heavenly fries was a very busy one, and you risked life and... Continue Reading →
I woke up, looked in the mirror, and, although the face was the same, something was different. I did not feel like myself. It seemed as though, sometime during the night, I had become separated from myself. Â Felt as though my mind had become a foreign country, and I did not speak the language there.... Continue Reading →
Using the definition of talisman as anything whose presence (and by extension, lack of presence) exercises a remarkable or powerful influence on human feelings and actions, I believe that love, by its presence or its absence, is the greatest talisman. This is why it so important that children learn that their parents love them. When... Continue Reading →
We were in the midst of a three week intensive class training missionaries. The day on group dynamics was almost finished, with everyone giving all the appropriate answers. Then a visitor appeared, a strong shift from the ordinary. He told us that he had taken the class in a previous year, his experience with the... Continue Reading →
Everyone who has ever experienced God's salvation in any form has a testimony to tell. It is in our witness that other people learn of the amazing power of God to save from seemingly impossible situations. In the psalm this week, Psalm 34, David, with eloquence, energy, and enthusiasm testified to the goodness of God... Continue Reading →
To compare oneself to someone else is a recipe for unhappiness and anxiety. One of my fellow Sunday School teachers refers to this behavior as "compare-tinitis." It is like an illness that invades the mind and the spirit, and the only cure is to come to see that not being identical to anyone else makes... Continue Reading →
Help from Heaven 