It was spectacular! In college, a bunch of us bored underclassmen went out to the vacant BLM land and collected all kinds of fallen timber, left over boards and trash into a single heap. Then, one of my brilliant classmates took a gallon of gasoline and doused the wood pile. An even smarter fellow, I think he’s a firefighter now, threw a cigarette into the mass and...

(From today’s post over at The High Calling. Won’t you join the conversation over there?)  As a college-bound teenager, I was determined to make as much money as possible during summers. And my dad – a roofer – needed the help. There were perks — free transportation in Dad’s 52 Chevy, a lunch packed by mom, and a paycheck that didn’t bounce....

(A repost of an article I wrote that was published in The Story Jar. A tribute to my mom, who now has all the flowers she can handle) Flowers. Mom has always had a passion for flowers. She believed they could brighten any drab room, liven any conversation, and change any dour mood. For 20 years, she took this vision earnestly each Sunday at the First Baptist Church....

So it’s finally time to come clean. I worked at a restaurant once as a teenager. It was the Nugget, on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe. It was a small casino with a few 21 tables, a row of slots, and lots of bleary-eyed people pulling nickle slot machines. The back of the casino had a small resturant where we served $2.99 stacks of pancakes and $7.99 prime rib....

I remember coming home from work and there was my son, lying on his stomach in the living room. He was surrounded by crayons and pieces of paper. “What are you doing, son?” “I’m working,” he said resolutely, his tongue pushed toward his cheek with a look of intensity that meant business.  “Really hard.” 20 minutes later he produced an elaborately colored picture. “I...

Laura Wellington was half a mile away from finishing when the bombs went off. The Boston Marathon came to a screeching, horrifying halt. She had run 25 and 1/2  miles for nothing. Weeping, she sat on the curb in dismay, overwhelmed with emotion for those who lost their lives, the injured, and her own empty efforts. Then, out of nowhere, a stranger walked up to her...

There are a number of popular books by modern-day atheists like Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, and Sam Harris. These new atheists are convinced that religion shouldn’t be tolerated. Instead it should be openly countered, criticized, exposed, and mocked if necessary. They have legions of fans. And those who follow their teachings are now...

If your situation seems too dark, too desperate, too impossible, I want to float a message of hope to you. There is a light. I’ve been there with you. I’ve looked down at the edge and looked down. It’s a terribly steep fall with no bottom. And standing on one side of that chasm, sometimes I can almost reach out and touch the other. The two sides are that...

Kids in classroom killed for no reason.A midnight showing of an adventure movie ends in tragedy.A bomb explodes at the end of a race, erasing smiles of elation, maiming and killing dozens. We rise up as a nation full of individuals with one word on our lips. Justice. We don’t want the guilty to go free after so ruthlessly changing the lives of the innocent....

“Of the Seven Deadly Sins, anger is possibly the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back — in many ways it is a feast fit for a king. The chief...