When author and pastor Timothy Keller released a new book eight years ago, he could not have foreseen how dramatically he would personally be living out the title: Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering In June 2020 he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Since then his life has revolved around physician consultations, therapeutic strategies, and a great deal of… Read more »
2020 has been a dumpster fire. This week an Indianapolis resident hauled a dumpster into his front yard and invited his neighbors to record their feelings about the current calendar year. Some scrawled “good riddance.” Others recorded jokes, jingles, and borderline poetry. At least one resorted to expletives. In a few days the dumpster’s trashy contents will be ceremonially torched… Read more »
People from all walks of life and every kind of circumstance end up writing Christmas carols. Even burned-out preachers. In 1849, a Massachusetts pastor named Edmund Sears suffered an emotional breakdown. He wasn’t just bone-weary from laboring for seven years to lead a pair of Unitarian congregations. His heart was heavy because of the social upheaval that had turned Europe… Read more »
What the world needs now is hope. That’s not as catchy a song title as Burt Bacharach’s What the World Needs Now is Love. And the Beatles never wrote a rock anthem titled All You Need is Hope. But we live in a dream-shattering, hope-crushing world. “People in many nations appear to be searching with a new intensity for spiritual moorings. One… Read more »
Maya Angelou’s life did not have a hopeful beginning. At the age of eight she was sexually abused and raped by her mother’s boyfriend. Maya told her brother what had happened. The boyfriend was apprehended. Incredibly, he was jailed for only one day. But four days after his release he was murdered, almost certainly by Maya’s uncles. The trauma of the rape now… Read more »
