the vital balance
Her voice shook as she told me about the problem she was having with her daughter. The concerned mother was worried that her teenager was mixing in with bad company, so she confiscated her daughter’s mobile phone and now chaperones her everywhere. But their relationship has now gone from bad to worse. So what should this mother do?
He knows you
He knows you. He knows every microcosm and nanosecond of your existence—every cell, atom, and molecule; every interest, weakness, and achievement; every hope, dream, and grief.
gentle heart
Recently, I was forced to bring my car to a complete stop on a busy road. A man in front of me had slammed on the brakes of his work truck, interrupting the flow of traffic. He climbed out of his cab, walked to the front of the idling vehicle, and stooped to pick something up. As he passed in front of my halted car, I could see that he was carrying a tiny turtle that he proceeded to place gently at the base of some shrubs far away from the road.
firm foundations
From the window of my office in Singapore, I observed that a plot of land was being excavated to make way for a new building. But for many months, the building project didn’t seem to make much progress despite a flurry of activity.
free to live the truth
When my son Wyatt was 10, we drove past a well-known burger chain. “Dad,” Wyatt said, “I don’t like it that the commercials make the fast-food places look all joyful and happy. And then you go there and they’re sad and dirty.” Then he said, “And the bathrooms are nasty.”
on solid ground
In the film High Fidelity, a character named Rob Gordon lamented his history of passivity. “I guess it made more sense to commit to nothing, keep my options open” he said. “And that’s suicide by tiny, tiny increments.”
trustworthy
My wife and I were visiting the British Museum last year when we came across a group of people in the Assyrian gallery listening to a man who we thought was a museum tour guide. “This is the Black Obelisk,” he said, pointing to a statue. “It records the triumphs of Shalmaneser III in the ninth century BC. This ruler is mentioned in 2 Kings chapter 8, and if you look closely, just here, you’ll see a carving of the Israelites paying him tribute.”
need wisdom? ask!
Following college, I spent several years in sports ministry and developed close friendships with a handful of professional and Olympic athletes. In talking with these friends over the past year, each of them commented that after they retired from athletic competition they struggled to know what to do next with their lives.
crooked house
Wobbly, woozy, unsteady. These words all describe the appearance of the Crooked House—the most photographed house in all of Poland. One observer commented that the structure looks as if it is “melting or sagging from exhaustion.” Designer Szotynscy Zaleski purposely created the exterior to feature few straight lines, and the result is an architectural ode to a funhouse mirror.
trust in a suspicious world
My bottle of water tastes good, but how can I trust the claim that it was sourced from a mountain spring? It’s reported that nearly 40 percent of bottled water is ordinary tap water. Also, many in the UK and Europe are waking up to the growing probability that their breakfast beef sausage is likely breakfast horsemeat sausage. Tests on meat labeled “beef” have exposed widespread fraud in the food industry as horse DNA has been identified. Stories like these breed cynicism, fear, and mistrust.
saved by a compass
During World War II, Waldemar Semenov (a retired merchant seaman) was serving as a junior engineer aboard the SS Alcoa Guide when a German submarine surfaced and opened fire on the ship. The US merchant ship was hit, caught fire, and began to sink. Three hundred miles off the coast of North Carolina, Semenov and the other sailors lowered lifeboats into the water. Fortunately, the lifeboats were equipped with a compass. Semenov and his crew used the compass to sail west by northwest toward the shipping lanes. After three days, a patrol plane spotted Semenov’s lifeboat and the USS Broome rescued the men the next day. Thanks to that compass, Semenov and 26 other crewmembers were saved.
exclusively inclusive
Was Jesus a nice guy? Consider this: He made some shockingly exclusive claims about Himself, and nice guys just don’t do that. When Peter told Him, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God,” Jesus blessed him (Matthew 16:16-17). To a Samaritan woman, Jesus plainly declared, “I AM the Messiah!” (John 4:26). And He announced to His followers, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).
