“It’s been ten whole years already? Wow! Hard to believe.” Many a father will say something like that while shaking his head in disbelief, when his oldest approaches the 10th birthday. It’s a milestone, not just for the kid, but for the parents. It’s a head-shaker because...

Richard Dahlstrom is the first to admit that his story is not one of those faith-making tales of abuse or addiction and God’s eventual redemption.  It’s the story of growing up in the proverbial healthy Christian home where the norm was baseball games, good grades and Saturday night spaghetti....

But in Tolstoy, just as in Plato and Plotinus, the thought of death is accompanied by a particular sentiment, by a kind of consciousness that, even while horror rose before them, wings were growing in their backs. - Lev Shestov, “A Letter to His Daughters” I’m a likable cuss, but I’m...

Like most people, I still haven’t been able to comprehend the staggering toll from Japan’s worst disaster since World War II. Nuclear radiation leaks, rolling blackouts that continue to put hospital patients and others (especially the elderly) at risk, a critical lack of sanitary water, the...

“I’m not black, but there’s a whole lot of times I wish I could say I’m not white.” Frank Zappa The history and progress of civil rights in America has never been easy, and many times it has been downright ugly and dispiriting.  But sometimes, yes, sometimes, glory breaks...

My day started at the women’s maximum security state prison.  In the area that I live there is a men’s and women’s maximum security prison.  I just so happened to have moved in across the street from the men’s maximum security prison, as you may have read, and sure enough a few weeks later...

My wife is 8 months pregnant, we are halfway through building our first home, and I just lost my job. The news came suddenly last Thursday evening.  A short phone call with a senior partner in our firm, and quick call with HR on Friday, and I was done.  My salary, our health coverage, and a core part...

I taught myself how to tie a windsor a couple of weeks ago. The thing is, I’m not very fond of ties. I’m quite comfortable in my jeans and hoodie, thank you.  Only on special occasions or in times of crises do I ever reach in my closet for a tie.  I think that above all things, attending...

The most rewarding thing I did this week was toss a messy pile of roof shingles into a nasty dumpster. I suppose, as a pastor and writer, I should have something loftier to claim, a driving sermon, a thoughtful article. But not this week. The pile of shingles littered the back corner of my small lot...

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. ...