Thirty-five years ago, Thomas Daigle and his wife signed a home loan. On the way out of the bank, he found a penny on the ground. On a lark, they said they should save pennies to pay off their loan. Decades later, they had amassed 62,000 pennies. They hauled the accumulated coins to a bank teller to... read more »

The question I felt needed to be answered affirmatively before I married Miska was this: Can I live without her? My intentions were romantic and chivalrous, but my focus was dead wrong. I discovered that there was probably nobody that I literally could not live without. In time, I found the better... read more »

An acquaintance of mine, who is highly intelligent and has a philosophical bent, also carries antipathy toward God and religion. He enjoys being provocative, recently quoting the second-century philosopher Epicurus who said: “There is no such thing as justice in the abstract; it is merely a... read more »

As a pastor, I get interesting responses from people when they discover my vocation. Some will immediately apologize for the language they’ve used. Some offer a forced smile and then come up with an excuse to change the subject. One line I hear often is: “Well, I like Jesus, but I don’t like... read more »

Among the poor, I’ve often encountered extravagant generosity. In the Amazon jungle, locals stretched their meager resources to provide me with daily meals. One evening they prepared fresh monkey stew and though it was not something I cared to eat, it was a costly delicacy for them. Within the... read more »

Last March, the Ecuadorian navy rescued 18-year-old Adrian Vasquez after he had aimlessly floated 28 days across the ocean on a 10-foot schooner. He had gone fishing with two friends, but as they headed toward shore the motor failed. Vasquez’s friends soon died from exposure and hunger. When he... read more »

James Hunter, a sociology professor at a large university, highlights the shift from shared moral foundations to individual choices that shift and vacillate. He says, “Most Americans continue to think of their lives in moral terms; they want to live good lives, but they are more uncertain about... read more »

When my boys were smaller and it was time for bed, they would often ask if they could “be a sack of potatoes.” I would pick them up by their legs, sling them over my shoulder and climb the stairs to their room. I’d fling them into their bed the way a farmer tosses a 50-pound bag of spuds onto... read more »

A couple of years ago, as I was driving our son Wyatt to kindergarten, our conversation turned to resurrection. Understandably, Wyatt was perplexed about what it meant and how it worked. Finally, he asked the question for which he most wanted an answer. “Dad,” he asked, “when God raises us... read more »

Apparently someone connected with Google has a sense of humor. In one recent Google Maps route from Japan to China, as expected, a long list of detailed directions populated the page. But if you scrolled down further, it told you to “kayak across the Pacific Ocean.” Following those instructions... read more »