Hopefulness
Tuesday, October 21st, 2008 Posted in Faith and Life | 2 Comments »Andy Crouch offers a thoughtful essay on the eventual fruits we might, if we are lucky enough not to find an easy way out, glean from the current economic crisis. Here's an excerpt: "The stark contrast between what I experience among ...
When They Call
Thursday, June 5th, 2008 Posted in Faith and Life | 3 Comments »I was afraid of losing our first child, even when she was healthy and near, even before we lost her. I suppose it's natural to fear for them the way we do. It's why we grit our teeth and force ...
The City Where Nobody Smiles
Wednesday, April 9th, 2008 Posted in Faith and Life | 6 Comments »I had business in Las Vegas the last couple of days. Las Vegas is probably my least favorite city. The conference I attended was lodged in Harrah's, which meant that no matter where I wanted to go, I had to ...
Sound Familiar?
Friday, March 14th, 2008 Posted in Faith and Life | 4 Comments »From Walker Percy's 1957 article, "The Coming Crisis in Psychiatry": "We all know perfectly well that the man who lives out his life as a consumer, a sexual partner, an 'other-directed' executive; who avoids boredom and anxiety by consuming tons of ...
Small Places
Tuesday, September 4th, 2007 Posted in Faith and Life | 5 Comments »One of last week's nights I woke to what I thought was a child crying outside our house. This is one of my fears, that my child will wander out the door in the middle of the night and walk ...
Dormez-Vous?
Wednesday, August 29th, 2007 Posted in Faith and Life | 5 Comments »If you've ever had people put their hands on your head and shoulders and pray over you, then you know what it is like, sometimes, to read the words some of you write to me. Caleb has been reading a great ...
The Nightmares
Tuesday, August 28th, 2007 Posted in Faith and Life | 13 Comments »Sunday night brought a nightmare, one I used to have as a child. In this nightmare you are awake, it seems, and you can see the bedroom as it will be when you finally do scream or gasp yourself from ...
Jesus Wept
Friday, July 13th, 2007 Posted in Faith and Life | 7 Comments »I've realized lately that my patience with bureaucracy and hypocrisy and politics has nearly reached its limit, which is unusual for me. I like to think that as a student of organizations I have more patience with them. But as ...
Sickness and Health
Tuesday, July 10th, 2007 Posted in Faith and Life | 3 Comments »I realized, as I lay in bed at 2:30 a.m., my head splitting, wondering if I needed to take my feverish wife to the hospital, that I haggle with God. I don't know if God haggles back. This makes me ...
Seeking Home
Monday, July 9th, 2007 Posted in Faith and Life | 3 Comments »The word home has a connotation both immediate and distant. A home is intimate, that place where we belong, where they let us in the door whether we deserve it or not. As something one does, home has traditionally been ...
A Father’s Day
Monday, June 18th, 2007 Posted in Faith and Life, Snapshots of Life | 6 Comments »Father's Day morning, the Wife brought me homemade blueberry muffins in bed. I sat reading short stories and eating blueberry muffins, and it was blissful. Soon I heard them conspiring outside my bedroom door, the little ones and their mother ...
The Least of These
Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007 Posted in Faith and Life | 6 Comments »We've been adopted by a kitten. She's a scrawny black creature who darted out of the bushes a few days ago, mewling and shivering, afraid of all of us but desperately hungry. Now we have a dish for food and ...
On Wisdom
Monday, April 23rd, 2007 Posted in Faith and Life, The Art of Parenting | 7 Comments »Caleb is learning to play chess. I realized this weekend that he often thinks three moves ahead. I will not lose to a seven-year-old. I played in a tournament once, and lost to a fourteen-year-old. That was humiliating enough. The ...
The Storm
Thursday, March 29th, 2007 Posted in Faith and Life | Comments OffThe two younger boys crept into our bed in the black morning, driven by a snarling storm. They curled into me, shivering, as if I am a safe harbor. There is no keeping out the storm; this is what I ...
The Shape of Eleven
Wednesday, March 7th, 2007 Posted in Faith and Life | Comments OffShe would have been eleven today. I would have made her favorite meal, which is spaghetti, and we would have had cake, probably something with pink frosting, and I would have eaten a slice even though I gave up sugar ...
For Lily’s Parents
Sunday, February 25th, 2007 Posted in Faith and Life | Comments OffParents Waiting It is strange, In the face of this hungering dark, That we persevere In giving life to these lambs, Who don't know better than to accept with hope, Having yet to understand what awaits. This is not our home. If they knew, they would rejoice, And perhaps ...
Unexpected Gifts
Saturday, February 17th, 2007 Posted in Faith and Life | Comments OffThe date began delightfully enough. We went to a healthy restaurant specializing in Mediterranean dishes, meaning that there was a three-minute wait, as opposed to what would have been an hour wait at the wretched Olive Garden. At the end ...
Thursday, October 19th, 2006 Posted in Faith and Life | Comments Off
P'u-Hua Fei Hua A flower and not a flower; of mist yet not of mist; At midnight she was there; she went as daylight shone. She came and for a little while was like a dream of spring, And then, as morning clouds that ...
Daddies
Saturday, June 3rd, 2006 Posted in Faith and Life | 18 Comments »I found myself on a train to the Atlanta airport weeks ago. There was an aggressive panhandler in my car, the kind who stands right up in your personal space and holds out his hand while mumbling about money for ...
Honor
Tuesday, October 18th, 2005 Posted in Faith and Life | 9 Comments »William Isaac's namesake passed away Saturday night. Sergeant Major William Stroup lost both parents as a child and spent part of his childhood in an orphanage and foster homes. He parachuted into Normandy at age 24, killed people who needed ...
Fourteen Years
Wednesday, May 18th, 2005 Posted in Faith and Life | 14 Comments »Fourteen years ago this evening, the Wife became, well, my wife. She could have done better, though I don't think she knew it at the time. I've certainly given her cause for buyer's remorse. Talk about perseverance -- that seems ...
Flowers
Wednesday, April 27th, 2005 Posted in Faith and Life | 10 Comments »I keep finding tender purple pansies growing in corners of my yard where they were never planted. Stubborn and fragile, cheerful without cause, they remind me of Caroline. Purple was her favorite color. She used to help me plant the ...
The Wounded
Wednesday, March 23rd, 2005 Posted in Faith and Life, The Sermons | 28 Comments »On its surface, the Terri Schiavo battle is a tangle of conflicting histories, medical opinions, legal opinions, religious opinions. Beneath the surface, it is the latest skirmish between those who want to stop our practice of terminating inconvenient life, and ...
Sharpening
Friday, March 18th, 2005 Posted in Faith and Life | 19 Comments »A few things. First, a logic check for the guy who tried to muscle his way into my lane this morning. Despite plenty of opportunities to merge like the rest of us, you chose to wait until the last possible ...
Birthday
Monday, March 7th, 2005 Posted in Faith and Life | 23 Comments »Sometimes when people learn that I have three boys, they say something like: "don't you want a little girl to go with all those boys?" I remember when we thought we were in the worst of Caroline's dying, after she ...
Dependent
Monday, February 7th, 2005 Posted in Faith and Life | 23 Comments »I've been sick, the kind that lingers and begins to make you wonder if you will ever feel good again, or if instead something ghastly has hold of you. Nothing does, says the doctor, just a combination of fatigue and ...
The Path
Tuesday, October 19th, 2004 Posted in Faith and Life | 1 Comment »With a sigh she was gone, five years ago tonight. Somewhere in these last years it became true that the time since we lost her is greater than the time we had her. I've come to measure the years by ...
Outnumbered
Friday, October 15th, 2004 Posted in Faith and Life, Snapshots of Life | 20 Comments »Ever put off writing a letter until you have the time to make it really special? Then the next thing you know, eight years have gone by, the person you were going to write to hates you, and you can't ...
Retrospective
Monday, August 23rd, 2004 Posted in Faith and Life, Snapshots of Life | 4 Comments »It was Nana to the rescue this weekend, thanks to the impending William Isaac's desire to see the world sooner than fits the doctors' schedule. With two boys, a wife on bedrest, and an upcoming board meeting, let's face it: ...
His Heart
Friday, July 23rd, 2004 Posted in Faith and Life, Snapshots of Life | 3 Comments »It's late, and Caleb should be asleep, but instead he's awake and in our bed, curled up in my arms. We talk about his day, and about the difference between a beard and a moustache, and about pizza. He's so ...
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