Hope in the Face of Doubt

Have you ever had a “mountaintop experience”? This term can be taken literally, figuratively, or even spiritually. If you have experienced the spiritual mountaintop, you are probably also familiar with the spiritual valley. These low places can be emotionally taxing and sometimes take the form of discouragement or even depression. Mountaintop highs and valley lows […]

Read More

Go for It

How many people stop because so few say “Go!”? In his fine little book Fully Human, Fully Alive, author John Powell relates an experience which happened to a friend while he was vacationing in the Bahamas. The friend was sightseeing when he noticed a crowd gathered toward the end of a pier. He walked down […]

Read More

Creativity and Tenacity

On May 24, 1965, a thirteen-and-a-half-foot boat slipped quietly out of the marina at Falmouth, Massachusetts. Its destination? England. It would be the smallest craft ever to make the voyage. Its name? Tinkerbelle. Its pilot? Robert Manry, a copy editor for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, who felt that ten years at the desk was enough […]

Read More

Spiritual Orienteering

Navigating life in the 21st century can be a complex and confusing game. Crucial decisions must be made as to which direction to take, and often the pace of the race leaves little time to stop and look at the map. The sport of orienteering began in Sweden about a hundred years ago. Orienteering involves […]

Read More

It Takes Courage

Deep within, we imagine ourselves as a mixture of Patrick Henry, Davy Crockett, John Wayne, and the prophet Daniel! But the truth of the matter is that most of us would do anything to keep from being different. We’d much rather blend into the woodwork. One of our greatest fears is being ostracised, rejected by […]

Read More

Going . . . Yet Not Knowing

There is a strange statement in Scripture that flashes like a bright neon sign. We see it when the author of the book of Hebrews speaks of Abraham pulling up his lifelong roots from his hometown, Ur, and leaving for—let’s see, where was he going? Abraham didn’t know! There he was, about seventy-five years old, […]

Read More

God Knows Your Ways

“God has the whole world in His hands.” Remember the old gospel song? He’s got the wind, the rain, the tiny little baby, yes, even you and me in His hands. How easy it is to forget that! And it isn’t limited to our geography or our culture, you know. He’s got the Middle East in […]

Read More