Participants in new member classes at our church complete a personal information form at the end of the session. A box on the form prompts them to write down different “causes, passions, and commitments” that figure in their lives. Everything from tagging monarch butterflies to helping kids with disabilities learn to swim has shown up […]

After years of interviewing people for radio, employment, and various journalistic projects, I’ve decided that incurious people do not make great conversation partners. To be absent of curiosity is to display a lack of interest in others, even if unintentionally so. It’s difficult to build a close friendship with someone who places a low priority […]

I’ve only missed one flight in my life. My wife and I glanced at the itinerary wrong, mistaking our initial flight for the return flight home. Having committed the wrong departure time to memory, we relaxed into our final day of vacation, confident that an 8 p.m. return of the rental car was perfect. When […]

I passed on the chocolate dessert tray in the restaurant last night, tempting as it was. I dread passing through the TSA screening lines at the airport when I’m in a hurry. I pass columns like this your way hoping to stir your heart and mind on matters of faith and life. One thing I will never pass, however, is […]

Terry Timmerman is one of the finest people I’ve ever known. Unpurchaseable is how I’d describe him. His integrity was never for sale. A mail carrier, he died of esophageal cancer too young but not before he and his wife managed to raise a couple of thoughtful kids. One time in the hospital, after surgeons […]