USA Today recently featured 13 of the newest roller coasters in the country. These thrillers promise higher speeds, steeper drops and sharper turns than their ancestors. From Cedar Point in Ohio to Wisconsin Dells to Orlando to Dollywood and beyond, these whiplashing wonders carry brave souls higher than a 20-story building, hurtling them downward at [...]
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Winks, Whispers and Wonders
March 2, 2013 – 6:44 pm
The world is a garish, noisy neighborhood. Decibels and pixels abound. The phone in my pocket spews more information in hours than I can assimilate in years. I’m reminded of my college speech prof who counseled tongue-in-cheek, “Shout louder if your argument is weak.” There’s a whole lot of shouting these days. The prophet Elijah [...]
Light at the Intersections
September 20, 2012 – 11:59 am
Rural highways are often dark. Night journeys in the country are illuminated only by the reach of the headlights. The exceptions are the primary intersections. There are often streetlights at the intersections. Special awareness is needed and provided at such points. This past summer, our family journeyed with my wife’s dad as he concluded his [...]
Come Forth
April 13, 2012 – 11:51 am
Madison County, south of Des Moines, is my ancestral home. It’s far enough off I-35 that a visit requires either intentionality or spontaneity. For me it was the latter. Whim and memory coaxed me toward the exit less taken. As I approached the town of Truro, I saw the cemetery on a hill to my [...]
A Smokin’ Hot Book
February 17, 2012 – 12:19 pm
Bibles are everywhere. Following centuries of painstaking hand copy-work, Gutenberg’s press began to churn them out around 1456. Since then, the most published book in human history has been distributed in 7.5 billion copies and counting. Thanks to the Gideons there’s one in your hotel room. You may own a few old Bibles passed down [...]
A Time to Tear Down
September 19, 2011 – 10:26 am
Tearing down yesterday can be difficult. No matter the quality of yesterday, we have the capacity to form it to the comfort of an old shoe. That is not a bad thing. In the worst of times it’s a coping skill and in the best of times, an ability to perpetuate all that makes life [...]
Ragged Endings and Nagging Hope
April 15, 2011 – 10:08 am
There is a strange raggedness in it all. Dear friends have recently lost a granddaughter at birth. Conceived in love and hope, this little one grew in the security of the womb, albeit bearing impairments that threatened hope for health and life. All did their best to keep the faith but instead faith now keeps them. [...]
Haunting Echoes
March 11, 2011 – 4:58 pm
Have your words ever come back to haunt you? You threw out a random opinion or vented an emotion at some time in the murky past. Later, like an echo across a valley, the words returned. You did not remember you said it. But the hearer remembered. The experience can be painful. The Bible letter [...]
Grace to Grow
March 5, 2011 – 8:05 am
A church responsibility has drawn me to re-explore the 7 Churches of Revelation and Jesus’ words to them through John the beloved. Though interpreted differently, it seems that these churches represent all churches at all times in all places. In the letters, we see how Jesus Christ loves His bride in both tough and tender [...]
Trees…(continued)
February 24, 2011 – 11:05 am
A few hours of spiritual retreat are too rare for me. My “to do” list seems always to trump silence, reflection, and listening. But, thanks to two delightful visiting spiritual directors, I was privileged this week to join a few pastors and their spouses for a mini-retreat on the Intersect campus. One hour of silence [...]