eat, pray, love
Spiritual memoirs are enjoying renewed popularity, and Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love has been the latest success story. A chronicle of her midlife crisis and quest for fulfillment, the book and subsequent movie captures her journey to Italy for food, India for spiritual enlightenment, and Bali for romance.
Critics have labeled Eat, Pray, Love narcissistic and shallow. Gilbert has an illicit affair,…
what makes you happy?
In 1937, researchers began studying the health and happiness of 268 Harvard University students. For many decades, the condition of these men was tracked. Featuring many years of data, the research was a serious attempt to answer a simple question: “What makes us happy?”
In 2008, Dr. Vaillant, the director of the study, was asked what he had learned about…
my friends and i
John Chrysostom wrote: “Such is friendship, that through it we love places and seasons; for as . . . flowers drop their sweet leaves on the ground around them, so friends impart favor even to the places where they dwell. . . . It would be better for us that the sun were exhausted than that we should be without…
a noun or a verb
A recent movie portrayed a teenage girl who got pregnant and had to decide what to do with her baby. Her relationship with her boyfriend wasn’t working out, her dad’s first marriage had failed, and the couple to whom she decided to give her baby was having major marital issues. With broken relationships as the backdrop, she said some profound…
solid investment
The best time to buy stocks is also the most difficult. It takes guts to invest in a bear market (a down market), but savvy investors find bargains on some solid stocks and buy even when everyone else is selling. And when the market comes back, they’re poised to do very well in their investment.
Jeremiah wasn’t dealing stock, but…
a conservative Christian?
Shortly before I moved to Africa, while at a New York City film festival reception, actor Tim Robbins and I engaged in a substantive conversation. We discussed causes and effects of war, international human rights issues, and why Hollywood celebrities are more likely than professional athletes to publicly endorse or oppose various political leaders.
When the topic turned to religion,…
iguanas and Christians
This is an image I captured in Aruba, while Tonia and I were eating breakfast one morning. Although there was more food on the ground, these iguanas positioned themselves against one another, fought over territory, head butted, and clawed one another over a piece of cantaloupe. The fight became so intense that they moved away from the food. The shocker?…
knowing God
Pastor A. W. Tozer wrote, “What comes to mind when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” If Tozer were alive today, he might discover that his quote is obsolete for many Christians. Our problem is not so much what enters our mind when we think about God, but rather that we’re not thinking about Him…
love . . . the best way
Day after day, thousands of Jesus’ followers toil in foreign lands to bring relief and the love of Christ to the severely afflicted and to the poorest of the poor. Through the context of their work, many of these laborers witness brutalities and suffering beyond human comprehension.
In Africa, many people I meet are devoted to coming alongside the “least…
cancel my subscription
I was browsing through a rack of T-shirts. Each one featured a sassy one-liner across the front. One shirt read: Cancel my subscription. I'm done with your issues! I chuckled to myself. But as I thought about it, I realized the wisecrack sums up today's attitude toward those of us who have more "issues" than others. So, why should we "continue…
