On Thursday morning, 50 of us are jammed into a Sunday school room singing chants. Most of the “us” are scholars — elementary school students — for Freedom School. This is the first day of six weeks that will be…
Something inside
Phil Lineberger “Through a Glass Darkly”
When the phone rang in my hotel room in the middle of the night, I knew. I’d dreaded this call for weeks, begged God that it would never come. Becky, more than a thousand miles away, wept on the other…
I’ve got Mother’s Day pain
It’s the week of Mother’s Day. And it’s that time of year that the church struggles to know what to do with women who aren’t mothers in the traditional sense. Pastors muse about, “Who gets a rose and who doesn’t?”…
Grief, death and the motherless child
Photo: Gerry Lauzon] Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him three months. When…
Before I go: A Stanford neurosurgeon’s parting wisdom about life and time
In residency, there’s a saying: The days are long, but the years are short. In neurosurgical training, the day usually began a little before 6 a.m., and lasted until the operating was done, which depended, in part, on how quick…
A long journey home
This is the third of three posts by Jason Coker, written in the days before and after his father died on Jan. 27. The first post can be read here and the second here. Jan. 30, 2015 I got the…
Redeeming the goodbyes
This is the second of three posts by Jason Coker, written in the days before and after his father died on Jan. 27. The first post can be read here. Jan. 16, 2015 I didn’t realize that this phone call…
Watchers — watching the one you love suffer
This is the first of three posts by Jason Coker, written in the days before and after his father died on Jan. 27. Jan. 15, 2015 I’m a watcher in this drama — the drama of my father’s death. The most…