I love great fantasy/adventure tales, especially ones in which ordinary people in ordinary places find an escape, or rather a hidden entrance, into another world where anything is possible. In the Harry Potter stories – my personal favorite – children run through a brick wall in London’s...

I remember a few years ago there was a discussion in Christian circles about exactly what the opposite of love could be. If people are not being kind and loving, what exactly were they doing instead? What do they need to stop doing so they can be loving, as we all know God is loving? What stops Christians,...

Skye Jethani’s book, The Divine Commodity, is on my list of top 20 books, so when I heard that he was coming out with another book,  I knew I had to read it. I ordered it as soon as it was available on Amazon and I read most of it last week while doing stand-in work on a movie set. You know...

On the tenth anniversary of 9/11, we are once again reminded of the most traumatic event to happen to our country during my generation. Ever since that day, we’ve struggled with how to heal as a nation and come to terms with the evil that exists in the world. There were many different ways we could...

Right off the bat, let me say this will not be a list of things you as a man can do for, to, or with, the woman in your life in order to have a better relationship with her. It will not be habits, gestures or practices you can exercise which will please your wife or girlfriend. This is because it will...

Walk A Mile event in Saginaw, Michigan. Photo by Alex Slitz/The Saginaw News. Love God; love yourself as God loves you; and love others as you love yourself. As a Baptist minister, Ash Wednesday and the Christian season of Lent are unfamiliar things to me. But as I have tried to understand and embrace...

I just spent a lovely Valentine’s Day with my husband. It was our sixth Valentine’s Day together. We met in January of 2006 and were married that August. (Hey, when you’ve spent your entire adult life unmarried, you don’t waste time dating Mr. Wrong or letting Mr. Right get away.)...

My love of drinking is no secret to anyone who knows me. The taste, the laughter among friends, the lack of self-consciousness…each are parts of a whole that have had me smitten since the first few clandestine beers out in the woods with my mates. When I got older, I found scotch. Oh, baby. I remember...

Christmas. It’s a wonderful time, especially for children. It’s a time of family, of food and feasting and fun, a time of giving, and of receiving. A time of waiting patiently for Christmas night, of trying to sleep until your eyes hurt from keeping them shut and wondering what wonderful thing will...

He approaches on the horizon My heart pounds with anticipation The son whom I have loved and lost Now, in my sight Never stray again, my son What has he endured? Covered in filth Oh, the debauchery! If only he knew How much I love, my son How I have suffered Endless nights Torch lit, watching, waiting,...