News reports today share the sad new that Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, has passed away after a long illness. Jobs, it’s reported, had pancreatic cancer, a particularly insidious form of the disease. The particular headline I read stated Jobs “lost his fight” against cancer. The media uses this...

One Saturday evening several weeks ago, I heard that 27-year-old Amy Winehouse had died, and even though I’m not familiar with much of her music, the news hit me hard. I stayed up past 2 a.m. crying for the troubled soul that was too fragile to withstand the angst of an artists’ creative process...

My friend Stephanie’s grandma was diagnosed with a brain tumor just after Thanksgiving.  In spite of brain surgery and chemotherapy, the tumor has grown, and her grandma is now on hospice. I had coffee with Stephanie a few days ago, and we talked a lot about life, and death, and the space in between. As...

Usually I get pretty excited about my birthday.  It’s a chance to reflect on the past year, a chance to set goals for the year to come, and a chance to thank God (again) for sparing my life. This year I decided to celebrate my 32nd birthday by taking a personal retreat.  I booked a room in an old-fashioned...

In July 2003, after seven months of a mystery illness, I was diagnosed with an aggressive form of Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. At stage 3B (there are only 4 stages, and B meant it had begun spreading around my body) the tumour in my chest was as big as a saucer. My treatment consisted of three months of chemotherapy...

I met Tammy about two years ago. We used to be neighbors, and my son and her eldest daughter caught the same bus to school every day. Tammy and I would often chat, strolling home from the bus stop. As it turned out we had a lot in common. Tammy, like me, was a wife, mother, a Christian and a cancer survivor. Tammy...

On Christmas Eve of 2006, I boarded a plane in Connecticut and flew home to Chicago.  My parents and siblings picked me up from the airport, and we drove to church for the Christmas Eve service. I had always hoped I’d be like Mary – a young woman who loved God, whose life took an extraordinary turn. ...

Last Saturday, Ohio State and Michigan finished their football season the way they always do—playing head-to-head in a game that redefines the term “rivalry.” Even though Michigan’s record was dreadful this season, the game was still huge. It always is. Many consider Ohio State/Michigan to be...

In the spring of my senior year of college, I made an S.O.S. call to my dad.  I was doing my taxes on my own for the first time, and it wasn’t going well. “Let me get this straight,” he said.  “You’re getting an A in Calculus, but you can’t fill out a 1040 EZ form?” I sheepishly admitted...

I doubt the existence of God from time to time. These doubts sometimes last for just a moment, and other times they linger long enough for me to categorize them into one of two varieties: 1) I doubt there is a God when I’m witness to good people suffering evil. 2) I doubt God when I fail to see...