I got my first real whiff of what being “born again” is like when our 6 year old granddaughter came to stay with us for a week. She was ecstatically happy to be with us, and for the life of me I couldn’t work out why. I’m a doddery old codger now and not much [...]
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I wonder how many kids grow up in homes (and schools) where they’re constantly yelled at and punished for making mistakes. I wonder how it affects them in later life, too. I know how it affected me, because much of my childhood was spent in a British Boarding school and I have vivid memories of [...]
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Without sleep, food and exercise we fall apart in no time. We’re vulnerable to injury, accidents and natural calamities. We weaken with age and fall victim to all kinds of horrible diseases. We’re born helpless, and we have little control over what our parents, teachers and religion do to us after that. And then there’s [...]
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I’ve been learning about the tricks women play to shave off those crucial ounces for weighing-in at Weight Watchers – like don’t eat breakfast that morning, wear the lightest weight clothes you’ve got, no underwear, and use the scales at Weight Watchers that register the lowest weight. It reminded me of the tricks people play [...]
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When Jesus said (in good old King James language) in John 5:30 that “I can of mine own self do nothing,” I always thought he was referring to his helplessness, or admitting he didn’t have the strength or ability to fulfill God’s will on his own. That isn’t what Jesus was saying, though. In context he’s [...]
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I was watching an advice program on TV on sex, and it was tragic seeing what happens with couples. A wife rations her husband’s quota of sex each week; a husband loses interest if his wife doesn’t initiate sex, they blame each other, and on and on it went. As I watched, the problem became [...]
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I’m amazed at people who don’t have time to eat. How can anyone miss out on eating?! But young people, especially, have so much going on and so many friends in need, as well as their own emotional crises, that they can’t find time to eat. What have we done to ourselves to create such [...]
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Adam and Eve could have experienced joy inexpressible but the only route to such joy is faith. Joy comes through trust. So their faith was tested. Would they trust God, no matter what reason they were given for not trusting him? Years later, Peter talked of the same thing, that joy comes through faith, 1 [...]
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I’ve often wondered why we try to save the lives of African babies, Haitian children, or even disease-ridden, poverty-stricken adults, when there’s little for them to live for. They live in dreadful countries, racked with poverty, AIDS, polluted water, crop failures, tribal warfare, religious fanatics and cruel, mad leaders. Many children will be forced to [...]
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“Please close the door behind you.” What a final statement that is. The interview’s over. There’s no more to be said. You walk to the door, open it, walk through and close it behind you with a click, leaving behind whatever happened inside the room forever. But it’s the closing of the door that seals [...]
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