I know that there are times when, in the midst of a conversation with a friend, I find it hard to track what he or she is saying. My friend isn't "trying to say something;" he or she really is saying something. The problem is that I don't always hear with the...
The book of Acts is a description; it is not a collection of mandates. In Acts, Luke describes what the experience of the earliest followers of Jesus was like; he tells us what happened. This means when we read Acts we can't simply conclude that how things happened...
In her book Every Patient Tells a Story (New York: Broadway Books, 2009), Dr. Lisa Sanders addresses a number issues related to the “art of diagnosis”—exploring how doctors’ experience, training, and intuition aid them in rightly solving the most challenging of...
Another dad and I were talking about how we enter into the world of our kids. In order to connect with our children, we've discovered how important it is it find a way to get into what matters to them and not simply try to get them to care about what matters to us....
As I think about my life with Jesus, I really long for a satisfying, vital, genuine relationship. I do not want a theoretical relationship; I don't want an ethical system based on the teachings of Jesus. I want life with him. I want genuine intimacy with someone....
It is fascinating watching my dog as I bring her a meal. The same dish, the same place, the same food. And she can’t wait to dive in! It’s not that we don’t give her something special or something different from time to time. It’s not that we don’t have a good...
I saw a mother run toward her child in the mall. The boy was middle-school aged. He was with a friend. They had shopping bags in their hands. And when the mother saw the boys she ran toward them. And what she did next gave me pause. She screamed at them. There in...
As Paul and Barnabas were on mission sharing the good news about Jesus, they encountered resistance among some of the Jewish population while Gentiles were giving them more of a hearing. Luke reports on this response from Gentile who had grasped what Paul and...
Have you noticed how a conversation can be shaped by the question that gets asked? (I just did it! I set you thinking along a certain line of thought by asking a question.) Because of that, the question asked can often drive the answer. Just by asking the question...
It's a very common habit–making "New Year's Resolutions." Lots of people do it. Lots of people don't keep the resolutions they make. In spite of the good intentions, they just never seem to follow through. This doesn't mean making such resolutions is a bad thing,...