There are nights in disaster shelters when the exhaustion becomes almost physical in the air. You can feel it hanging over rows of cots and folding chairs long after midnight. Volunteers move more slowly. Children finally fall asleep. Coffee grows…
Pondering David Foster Wallace, lobsters and The Twilight Zone
I did not expect David Foster Wallace to unsettle my dinner plate. I have read enough of him to know he rarely leaves the reader unchanged, but Consider the Lobster struck me in a way I did not anticipate. It…
Suffering Comes in Many Forms. So Does Theodicy.
Eleonore Stump is a connoisseur of suffering. To quote Hamlet’s anguished words, she knows the “thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to,” which come in degrees, varieties, and combinations that bring ruin to human lives.
Wrestling with Is It God’s Will? through Palestinian Christian eyes
When I first opened Brandon Ambrosino’s chapter “Getting Comfortable in the Basement” from his book Is It God’s Will?, I was struck by the image he uses. He contrasts the “living room,” where faith feels tidy and safe, with the…
Living out the story of God
As an avid reader, a personal standard for a good book is a storyline that captures the imagination with an invitation to enter into the world-building and characters’ lives. The book should bring questions like, “Where might I fit into…
Justice is always coming
I have spent much time processing the outcome of the presidential election. The results left me downcast and perplexed. Not because the outcome was opposite of the way I voted, but because of the swiftness and definitiveness with which the…
God is in the river
Recently my wife and I flew to North Carolina to attend the memorial service of our dear friend and former missionary colleague Eugene Ruble. Gene and Peggy served in Indonesia for many of the years we also were there as…
Did God protect Donald Trump?
Immediately after the horrific assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, some people of faith began claiming God protected him. For example, Franklin Graham unequivocally pronounced, “God spared his life.” But that popular affirmation raises difficult questions, which even Graham…
God (suffers) with us
As we laid Phyllis, my paternal grandmother, to rest Dec. 11, 2019, I looked around and saw my family trying to piece themselves together. It was an intense funeral, the kind that comes after an unexpected loss; the kind where…
Gallup says global well-being is rebounding some
Global well-being rebounded in 2022 after taking a hit during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new Gallup survey. “Perhaps exhaling a collective sigh of relief after so much uncertainty during the pandemic, the world felt more well-rested, experienced more…
A New Year’s resolution from Gandhi and a three-word movie subtitle
Gandhi helped free me from prison. Now there’s some fun with syntax and the ambiguity of a preposition. That sentence has two potential meanings: Either Gandhi helped me get out of prison, or, while he was in prison, Gandhi helped…
Lessons from Birth of a Nation (the second one)
A few years ago a controversial movie with an even more controversial title was released about the life of Nat Turner, a 19th century Black preacher who led a slave revolt in Virginia. Birth of a Nation was an ironic…