There’s this boy, and he’s eight. And he knows exactly when to curl up on the couch and play quietly alone. He knows exactly when he needs to shut this world out for a bit. That little boy is my son. A sweet-spirited kid, but slow, slow to adjust. He is always the quietest one in the class. Never wants … More God Uses the Quiet Ones Too
This past Christmas we saw The Nutcracker at the San Francisco Opera House. We dressed up, wore extra thick jackets, and put on our best shoes. And my 4-year-old daughter loved every bit of it. It was her first time seeing a real ballet production. It was her first time sitting in fancy velvety chairs and needing to be quiet – … More She Wants to Dance
Now that I think about it, it was really only this fence, this divider between our homes, that connected us. You see, my neighbor and I seemed to have nothing in common except for a fence. The truth is that I never knew her. We never enjoyed any neighborly talk. She never asked about the kids. We … More The Day the Fence Fell
For as much I want to tie a neat bow around the concept of pain, sometimes there are no easy answers. Yes… I see the good that comes out of struggle, the way it rouses a deaf world to become more attuned to God, to each other. Certainly, pain can come from our doing, the sin of others, the effects of a fallen world. But … More Draw a Line in the Sand
I got a call from my neighbor last night. The other day I had left some flowers on her doorstep. Her husband passed away three days after Christmas. He was eighty-three. “I just have to keep going, I guess,” she said to me over the phone that night. I woke up this morning with her words still with me. It’s … More Look Up, Press On
