There I was lying in our room, listening to my wife read the Lord of the Rings aloud. It was the first time that I had heard the story. I felt warm and contented inside. The story was moving along just as all great stories should–the unlikely hero Frodo had destroyed the ring, the hordes…
Why is it that so often our life in this modern world prevents us from living; no time for pausing or reflecting? Days roll into weeks, weeks into months, and before we know it, it’s Christmas. After a week or so of vacation we are suddenly packing up the Christmas and New Year’s decorations. Then…
Ten cardboard boxes, two stuffed backpacks, and a whole lot of enthusiasm was all my pregnant wife and I had when we walked through the front door. Sounds like a moving story, and it was. We had moved halfway across the world. As we caught our breath on the landing after hauling our belongings up…
Someone somewhere once said, “Youth is wasted on the young!” But is that true? Maybe it should be said, “Middle-age is wasted on the shriveled!” How does a person enter the prime of his life and one day wake up to find a shell of himself, a wizened soul covered in a brittle exo-skeleton of…
You are holding on tighter than he is. The palm of your hand is sweaty when you finally let go of that foam-padded bike seat. The brightly painted bicycle wobbles, but this time it doesn’t fall down. That little head turns and flashes a toothy smile. You shout, “You’re doing it! You’re doing it!” Your…
There is an old Latin proverb that says, “Experience is the best teacher.” What we really know is not the sum of our theoretical knowledge, but what we have accumulated through truth applied to our experience. Though I hold this as foundational truth, as a father of four growing children it makes me shudder. There…
Although the sunny hills and shining ponds of early children’s stories are both plentiful and beautiful, as the growing child looks past the rolling hills he sees in the distance a land higher up and farther in. It is the expanse of classic fantasy, populated with wonders and miracles. It is a place where deep…
