In his book Stories for the Journey, William R. White shares the story of Hans, a European seminary professor devastated by the death of his wife, Enid. Hans was so overcome with sorrow that he lost his appetite and didn't want to leave the house. Out of concern, the seminary president, along with three other professors, paid Hans a visit. The grieving professor confessed that he was struggling with ...

In a 2009 article for Christianity Today magazine, author Jocelyn Green gave readers a glimpse into the lives of different military officers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder—with special attention given to the responsibility the church has in ministering to those officers. She writes:

Nate Self's military record was impeccable. A West Point graduate, he led an elite Army Ranger outfit ...

Most who champion on-line chat rooms and message boards argue that such technology encourages community. The question, however, is just how healthy on-line community really is. Emboldened by anonymity, people often say things to others that they would never say face-to-face. Armed with a certain sense that "this isn't really the real world," people have little concern for the consequences of their ...

In a 2009 article in Time magazine, writer Coco Masters shared a startling statistic: one in five Japanese men and women have seriously considered taking their lives, and each year over the past decade, more than 30,000 people have killed themselves in that country. But Masters surrounded those troubling statistics with the story of Yukio Shige. It's because of Shige that at least 188 Japanese men ...

"My pastor needed help."

—Keith Melton, of the First Baptist Church of Maryville, Illinois, explaining why he immediately charged the gunman who had just shot his pastor, Fred Winters. The assailant had approached the pulpit as the pastor was nearing the end of his sermon and opened fire. He fired four shots, killing the pastor. Melton, sitting in congregation, immediately jumped to his feet, ...

According to a 2009 study by the Pew Center, the proportion of U.S. adults in the corrections system is 1 in 31. A similar study in 1982 found that the proportion of U.S. adults in the corrections system was 1 in 77.

A man who had no interest in spiritual matters related casually to the Christian who lived next door—they talked over the back fence, borrowed lawn mowers, stuff like that. Then the non-Christian's wife was stricken with cancer, and she died three months later. Here's part of a letter he wrote afterward:

I was in total despair. I went through the funeral preparations and the service like I was ...

In March of 2008, I did something stupid. I fell on ice and ruptured the ligament that connects the kneecap to the thigh. The moment I hit the ground I knew my right leg was inoperative. My first thought was, I guess I won't be running tomorrow.

Dragging my useless leg, I crawled to the back door of our home and finally got the attention of my wife, Gail. With her assistance I managed to get inside ...

Around 7 p.m. on the evening of Friday, May 31, 1985, an F3-magnitude tornado swept through Beaver County, Pennsylvania, just north of Pittsburgh. We were at church for a meeting, and when we got word of the storm, we had no idea how bad it had been. When our meeting came to an end, we headed to the home of some friends just as we had planned on doing.

My friend is a surgeon, and when we arrived at ...

One of the most vivid memories from my youth is connected with a little goat given to me by my father to care for during the last year of the Second World War. The goat's name was Walter. I was thirteen years old then, and we lived in a part of Holland that was isolated by the great rivers from the D-Day armies. People were dying of hunger.

I loved my little goat. I spent hours collecting acorns for ...