On My Mind

Dr. Fred Alexander, my college roommate, and lifelong friend, chose a career in higher education. It was a close call, because early on he felt the tug of a different calling. As a young Navy Reservist, Fred blew the top off pilot aptitude tests. The U.S. Navy pulled out all the stops to convince him […]

Approval ratings of politicians are at an all-time low. In a Gallup poll, Americans were asked to rank twenty-two professions for honesty and ethical standards. Congress scored next to last. We long for integrity in our elected leaders, but it no longer surprises us when a politician is caught lying, discovered taking bribes, exposed as […]

When they pass out medals for bravery, Sherry Basu deserves one. This four-feet-one-inch twenty-four-year-old was sixty-five pounds of raw courage. I met Sherry a few years ago when she was managing a one-day dry cleaner and laundry in my neighborhood that adjoined the convenience store where I bought my morning paper and coffee. I began […]

There are a handful of things in my life that have always been there—changeless, consistent, dependable: the sun has not failed to rise or set since the day I was born; the earth has not perceptibly changed its spin in my lifetime; God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And then there is my […]

The world’s tallest statue of an American hero is at the southern edge of Huntsville, Texas—a dazzling 77-feet-tall image of Sam Houston, composed of 30 tons of concrete and steel. It is impressive but nowhere near as imposing as Nebuchadnezzar’s statue on the plain of Dura in Babylon, which trumped Houston’s monument in both size […]

Dr. Batsell Barrett Baxter once told me about a cute kid who edged in next to him one Sunday after his sermon and whispered, “I wisht I wuz you!” It’s not just kid stuff. Many adults have enviously eyed someone who seemed to have it all and thought, “I wish I was you!” For some […]

I have never met Sue, but her letter made me wish I had. She had reason to be bitter but wasn’t. Sue wanted children—four of them. Instead, in her first six years of marriage, she had four miscarriages. The fifth pregnancy was problem-free. Sue was going to have this baby! And she did. Baby Robby […]

They had expected so much and walked away with so little. They had thought that by now they would be cabinet members in a new administration, wrecking Rome’s rule and restoring Israel’s independence. Instead, they were jobless, and Rome was having her way. With heavy hearts and sluggish steps, they had come home to Galilee. […]

They had expected so much and walked away with so little. They had thought that by now they would be cabinet members in a new administration, wrecking Rome’s rule and restoring Israel’s independence. Instead, they were jobless, and Rome was having her way. With heavy hearts and sluggish steps, they had come home to Galilee. […]

I stood with a grieving mother and father in the cemetery, where we stared at a casket and an open grave. They were each holding a toddler. Their daughter, the children’s mother, had lost her battle with cancer. The heartbroken couple was left with memories, bills, and two babies. It isn’t suffering that troubles us; […]