If I could have more money or more time, I’d take more time. No doubt. There’s so much I want to do in this world, too much to see, to experience, to know. Nothing puts me in a foul mood…
In praise of the undazed life
“Why stand ye gazing . . . ?” (Acts 1:11) My Dad wasn’t the least bit athletic; nor were others in his family. So we’re not sure where my sporting interest and coordination came from. I played every kind of…
A visit to Treblinka
We arrived in the city of Treblinka with some trepidation. Our drive had taken longer than expected so we were anxious to get off the bus and see the memorial. We drove passed the city limit sign. We drove through…
Who will go to Destination Unknown?
“Destination Unknown.” That was the stated course of the troop ship on which Julia Graham and her first husband, Henry, embarked in May 1945, with their 7-month-old son, as Baptist missionaries to the Middle East. Julia and Henry and the…
‘I see ya brought a helper’
My dad drove a gas truck for the local farmers cooperative when I was a kid. He delivered bulk fuel to farms for tractors and furnace oil to village dwellers for heat. In the summer or on a school break,…
It’s slow, but ‘ Tomorrowland’ offers antidote to doom and gloom
There was a time when the world believed the future would be better. That view held to the promise of better days within reach. But when that future arrived we found not a promise but what many saw as a…
Beatific: An order of worship of the life – and death – of a Baptist church
Bridgewater Baptist Church, Beatific Prelude Listen reverently as Charlie Haden and John Taylor play “Bittersweet,” the sound of this story. Greeting Imagine a young man, newly arrived in America, suitcase in hand. He strolls through Electric Park as fireworks…
An airman reflects: don’t thank me this Memorial Day
I was talking to one of our Air Force senior leaders the other day who said, “Everyone who has served on the front lines of this war has been forever changed.” That was cool, because “Forever Changed” is the name…
A Poem: Good Friday with the Methodists
I estimate forty of us— spread like thin gravy over the dim sanctuary. My own Baptist flock honors the noontime crucifixion, so tonight my son and I are free to join these Methodists who have hired four Gregorian chanters from the…
The chaos of waiting
Clearly there had been some mistake. Mark was thirty-four-years old and healthy. He had never even spent a night in the hospital. We had a two-year-old son. We had plans for a vacation and our careers and our family. How…
You too.
Few things invite the kind of eyes-shut-grab-the-mic-and-bang-out-a-couple-of-quick-bars-of-life-is-a-highway quite like spending two weeks snowed-in under a suffocating pile of things entitled something along the lines of “5 ways to tell if your dog is hiding an addiction from whatever Harry Potter character…
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…