cynical
I leafed through the book, Can’t Be Bought (not the real title). The book told the challenging story of a megachurch pastor who realized he had built his ministry on marketing strategies rather than on Christ’s call. He decided he would no longer cater to the crowd but instead preach the cost of discipleship and let the chips fall where they may. Sadly, the book isn’t good. And on the last page, the publisher—apparently hoping to cash-in on the success of the book—offered T-shirts emblazoned with that catch phrase, Can’t Be Bought.
worth it
Racing along the beach as the moonlight hits the water, I dash toward the figure running toward me. I have a pile of papers to grade, a house in desperate need of attention, and a writing deadline to complete in less than 48 hours, and here I am running through the sand and trying to guard my team’s home base.…
good call
Early in 2011, a US baseball coach made the best call of his career. Tom Walter, the coach of the Wake Forest University baseball team, chose to give up one of his kidneys so that one of his players could live. A freshman player, Kevin Jordan, had been stricken with a disease that attacked his kidneys and left them functioning…
save him first
Last January, flash floods hammered Australia. Many people lost their lives. One was a 13-year-old boy named Jordan Rice. Jordan, his mother, and 10-year-old brother Blake were trapped in their car as the water rose. Jordan’s dad recounted how “all these people were just standing around until an old scrawny guy grabbed a bit of rope, wrapped it around himself…
radical love
Julio Diaz stepped off the late-night subway en route to his favorite diner when a knife-wielding teen demanded his wallet. Diaz handed the wallet over; but as the mugger began to walk away, Diaz stopped him. “If you’re going to be robbing people for the rest of the night,” Diaz said, “you might as well take my coat to keep…
letting go
Li Yue fell hard for Hou You Jing. They were from the same province, shared a love for badminton and western movies, and—as if by fate—met while working second shift at a microchip processor company in Shenzhen. Li Yue couldn’t stand to be apart from Hou You Jing, and she didn’t notice that her constant calls and weekend plans were…
long commute
Michael Hanley traded an 8-minute commute to work for an 8-hour one. When his autoworker job in Wisconsin was phased out, he stayed with the company and took the only position available—in Kansas. His weekly round-trip commute is now more than 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles). He’s gone from his family each workweek, seeing them only on the weekends. But he chose…
the fight for marriage
The fight for godly marriages has raged since the fall in Eden, but in the past few years, my husband and I have become increasingly aware that the battle lines begin at our doorstep. Seeing some of our friends divorce and others separate has left us wishing for the innocence of days gone by. As we prepare to celebrate our…
giving to others
Rebekah Rushing who was a high-level assistant at Enron Corporation before it collapsed due to accounting fraud in 2001, demonstrated that ethics is much more than not doing wrong. She went beyond looking out for herself. Rushing, along with two former colleagues, set up a fund at a local bank to help other displaced workers. With $90 of her own…
