Joy was like a distant relative I hadn’t seen since childhood. People who live in the extreme hemispheres don’t see the sun for so long that they forget its warmth and illuminating power. I remembered the term but couldn’t quite recall how joy felt. . . Like a friend tossing pebbles at your window from …
Permission to Feel
Tamara has suffered since birth, having had dozens of surgeries with varying degrees of torture, but with very limited success. Like the guy on those anti-smoking commercials, this precious teenager has to plug the hole in her throat with her finger in order to speak. Like many young sufferers I’ve met, she has an incredibly …
Encounter or Explanation?
Job’s book concludes with a surprise visit from God, but instead of comforting the sufferer, he interrogates him about his whereabouts while he (God) was busy creating. He doesn’t refer to Job’s suffering. He doesn’t answer any of Job’s questions or defend himself against any of Job’s accusations. He doesn’t explain why he was silent …
Faith: Paradox or Packaged?
I don’t like living with mystery and paradox any more than the next person. I prefer maps over mystery. I like to know where I am and where I’m going. But life is ambiguous. It unspools in cycles in no predictable order—and for people of faith, there are a lot of loose ends. It’s easy …
The Blessing of Loneliness
A few short months before the lights went out, life had been good – not easy or by any means perfect – but reasonably good. I was healthy, married, pastoring, and gardening on my days off in the backyard of our dream house. It was as if I had gone to sleep one night and …
barney wiget 