Jesus Knows Our Suffering

My wife leads a weekly "Christian circle" at a nursing home. An Alzheimer's patient named Betsy faithfully attends, led there by a staff ...

Christina Ricci's Self-Mutilation

In a Rolling Stone interview, Christina Ricci talks about self-mutilation and pain when a teenager:

She stretches; her sleeves ride up; there are raised ...

Marilyn Manson Doesn't Blame Devil

After being blamed for inciting the Columbine shootings, rock star Marilyn Manson argued in Rolling Stone:

I'm a controversial artist, one who dares ...

Self-Destructive Habits

While staying with my friends Tim and Jill Jones, I watched their hamster, Hammy, in his little cage. Hammy has a warm nest of cedar shavings to curl ...

Political Prayer

Every once in a while, a minister's prayer opening a state legislature somewhere makes the news. Usually it's because it's too "exclusive," ...

Mixed News of Gospel

In the gospel, we discover we are far worse off than we thought, and far more loved than we ever dreamed.

Why Failure Lingers

Failures take on a life of their own because the brain remembers incomplete tasks or failures longer than any success or completed activity. It’s ...

An Ant Caught in Traffic

For twenty-two years I drove the Chicago area expressways. On the Eisenhower Expressway you have six lanes going in and six lanes coming out. I often ...

Evil in Good Intentions

Again and again we've been forced to note that the evils that we face are not the work of bad men only, but of good as well. The gravest of our disasters ...

What You Know About Everyone You Meet

Remember that everyone you meet is afraid of something, loves something, and has lost something.