To appreciate what you have, one must at times lose it. In South Korea, they have this service where you can encoffin yourself, and many find they get back up from the darkness more eager to live. Yes, coffin therapy. This matter of life and death is a complicated one…

Universal Dislike Even if you work in a laboratory and study it for noble reasons, I doubt you would like the subject matter, in a personal kind of way. Eww Yuck Stinky are more words we associate with this waste we all eject from out of our bodies. Funnily, I…

My phone buzzed and I was greeted by a video link with the words: “Due to the alleged desecration of the Holy Quran in Jaranwala, the situation became very tense. Many churches and houses of Christians have been set on fire. Christians are forced to leave their homes.” Right below…

ENOUGH to stuff, we say. We know this, and other common-sense bytes like: Buy only what you need. If something’s been in your cupboard/larder/freezer and hasn’t seen the light of day/night, you really can give it away….or in the case of the food, toss it. But I found that to…

Dear Stan, I feel as if you would not mind if i addressed you so. I first heard of you when my seminary professor mentioned your name and a book you have written with a measure of diffidence. I scan some portions of the book and moved on to other…

A long absence I cannot recall the last international missions conference I went to. This is in part due to the brain’s recent lowered recall reflex, as much as due to a commitment made two decades back to reduce participation. …

Why my child, do you live as if I did not understand your life? That you are scrambling, anxious, frantic, sleepless? Did the sun not rise this morning? And when you least expected it, a reprieve or a kindness came? Or did you fail to notice how the birds sing…

Capernaum. If you don’t know it, I understand. Place names only stick when a place has found a sticking point in the heart. So, to be honest, many places, no matter how often I have read of them and maybe even studied to get the context for a text, don’t…

Byzantine I must say I know next to nothing about the Byzantines, with vague ideas of its association with Rome, the Orthodox church, the iconoclasm controversy, incense-filled churches, and the Crusades. I know better now and will attempt to share some of it here. Important land tracts and strategic locations…