There is a truly striking delphinium plant growing right outside my front door this season. I feel free to offer it such praise because I take nearly no credit for its growth or beauty. I think I remember cutting back the long brown remains of last summer’s growth sometime in...
I was a teacher for 19 years. When I first started out, the pay was pretty skimpy, but after all of this time, I managed to build up a solid salary. I bought a house, I have a car, and I enjoy going out to lots of fancy restaurants. For a variety of reasons, I’d...
For the past few years, my perspective on life has been shaped by the expectation that my entire life has been preparing me for what’s coming next. The progression in my mind goes something like this: Figure out I want to study sociology --> Get a degree from Cal -->...
Keep me safe, O God,I’ve run for dear life to you.I say to God, “Be my Lord!”Without you, nothing makes sense.Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.As for the godly ones in the land, they are the true nobility,in whom is all my delight...
I am the kind of person who likes to know in advance how things will turn out—or, at the least, what to expect. Personality tests I’ve taken show I’m a perfectionist. I pay attention to details and desire certainty and completion. I like working out intricate...
Learning about faith seems to be an ever-present part of my life these days. A little over a year ago, our family of five gave up everything familiar to us and moved to Montevideo, Uruguay, where we work with a branch of Youth for Christ that reaches out to Third-Culture Kids...
“And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved. And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he...
From a mathematical point of view, you could say I’ve been a Christian for thirty years. And it would be natural to think that my spiritual life would thus be mature by now. While we never truly “arrive” in this life, my maturity really didn’t start...
Nearly two years ago, just after I completed four years of doctoral studies and four years of undergraduate studies back-to-back, I was suddenly thrust into an experience that was completely foreign to me: I was unemployed. Not only was I unemployed, but I found myself in a new corner...
Seven months ago, after a season of discernment, I packed my bags and moved to a densely populated metropolis in south-central China. I now teach English at one of the main universities here. During the first weeks, I would walk around town and lie awake at night, asking...