Belief

It ain’t what you don’t know that hurts you. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so. —Mark Twain Belief can be defined widely on a sliding scale of commitment and intensity. For the sake of this discussion, bear with me and define belief

Protection by Exposure

Those who own a fully restored ’55 Chevy will likely also own a car cover and garage bay for it because sun and rain will fade the paint and rust the metal. Earnest Shackleton wore coats, mitts, and boots when he was in Antarctica because frostbite hurts. Dwellers of the

Why Work?

The first day of the week our children have learned to recognize is Saturday. They recognized the rest of the week days by asking what comes after Saturday or before Saturday. They perfected their elementary counting skills by figuring out how many times they still needed to sleep until it

Open Letter to my Mentor

Dear M., Remember when you gave me Mere Christianity when I was in the thick of the pimples and teenage angst? I was honored you thought me mature enough to want this type of material. I do not remember if it was the content of the book or the fact

Daddy Got Bit by a Hound Dog

We needed a dog, and the dog would need training. My children and I read books, watched people and their dogs, discussed training methods and trainers. Especially, we read and watched Cesar Millan, the dog whisperer. Born in poverty in Mexico and raised surrounded by dogs, he has risen to

Hermits

Christopher Knight was a young man in the mid-1980s. He had a home in Maine and a job as a locksmith. Life started to overwhelm him and every encounter with another person seemed to be a stressful, zero-sum situation. One day he climbed into his small SUV and just drove

The Shoulders of Giants

Nature, and Nature’s laws lay hid in night. God said, “Let Newton be!” And all was light. —Alexander Pope While Alexander Pope’s adulation of Sir Isaac Newton is a bit much, Newton was a giant among men by most accounts. The sheer breadth of his contribution to human

What was Noah's IQ?

Studying ancient history has given me a radically different perspective on one of the most well-known Bible stories. We have been taught that evolution is a farce and would proclaim that modern thought has had minimal effect on our view of the Bible. We smirk and chortle at secular descriptions

7x Fatherhood

When a book such as The Seven Steps to a Sizzling Marriage is proclaimed as a must-read, I cringe. When a message with the theme “The Five Steps to a Struggle-free Life” is preached, I shake my head invisibly. When a tract titled “The Three Steps to Model Children” comes

Unity

I don’t like chickens. They could never survive on their own. They are brainless and gross, especially if you are forced to participate in the killing, cleaning, and dismembering. God did not make chickens; He made grouse and pheasants. Also, these little yapping creatures we call dogs? When God