THE FRAGILITY OF WORDS

For those who don’t receive my newsletters, this is the latest.  One crucial aspect of my ministry is answering the heart-wrenching emails of adult MKs who still struggle to reconcile their experiences with the benevolent and loving God their parents preached.  For some, the end result is a disavowal of their faith.  Here is a […]

ROMANTICIZING REFUSE

Ro·man·ti·cize  (rōˈmantəˌsīz,rə-/) verb To deal with or describe in an idealized or unrealistic fashion; make (something) seem better or more appealing than it really is. I’m not a romance basher.  Red roses, chilled wine, handmade cards, carefully chosen words?  Count me in.  But this article isn’t about the trappings of love.  It’s about the prevalent […]

A PLANT IN MIDAIR: skills for adaptation

1986.  I walked onto the Wheaton College campus for the first time.  Everything felt hugely new.  New culture, new way of life, new value-system.  New educational level, new teaching methods, new homework load.  New roommate, new expectations…new everything. I was not prepared for all the newness.  I’d said goodbye to my other universe just a […]

MACHETES, MASKS AND MORONS

I stink at idioms. Most MKs do. And when I inadvertently rewrite them, I tend toward rhymes. “To beat a dead horse” becomes “to flog a dead dog,” and “to blow one’s own horn” becomes “to toot one’s own flute.” Until a few years ago, I tried to mask my idiom-idiocy with semi-sayings along the […]

THE WISDOM OF DYING

When I first heard that Tangled Ashes was a finalist for the Christy Awards, I thought, “Oh, that’s fun,” and accepted Tyndale’s invitation to attend the event in St Louis last weekend. The first clue that I’d vastly underestimated the importance of the Christies came when a fellow nominee asked, as we were walking across […]

1 14 15 16 47