It is Friday. Black Friday. We have officially made it through Thanksgiving to the start of the Christmas season. Though I’m not a fan of Black Friday (I tend to think it brings out the worst in us), I am a fan of

Here it is, Thanksgiving Day 2017. We are on our fourth day in the Five Days of Thanksgiving series, and though I feel obligated to write something ridiculously profound for you today because it is the holiday, I also fe

Where there is life, there is mess. The Proverbs puts it this way: “Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean.” (Prov.14:4, ESV) It is absolutely inevitable: Where human beings gather in fellowship, the

I didn’t know we were poor. Our home was filled with things that mattered – music and literature, friends and laughter, traditions and love. I knew that we didn’t always have milk in the re

On October 26, Coptic Christians in Minya, Egypt locked themselves inside their church as a mob of more than one thousand people gathered outside its doors. Though the Copts were not the aggressors in this latest confron

“I don’t even have the boys’ room open yet.” That’s what the waitress said to me three minutes ago. She knows I followed them here. It is thirty-seven minutes past six, and the room isn&r

The above image is my own from nine years ago. Are you stronger than those waves? Great. In Michigan and the surrounding states, every now and then we are reminded that “Great” may not mean “excel

Coptic Christian girls are being kidnapped by Salafists at record numbers, according to a recent article by World Watch Monitor. A former Islamic kidnapper, identified as ‘G,’ explains that these girls are of

Anyone who has ever read my words or shared conversation and coffee with me or heard my music knows that I have a fascination with the parallel the psalmist, David, makes between night and dawn and sorrow and joy. In fac

There are cairns along the lakeshore. It has become something of a phenomenon here in my hometown. The rock wall that helps prevent erosion has somehow become a mantle to feature the artwork of locals and tourists ali

Sometimes I feel empty, and I have to remind myself: You are not an endless fountain. You’re a teacup. If you’re anything like me, you likely have some cracks and chips and places where your once-bold colo

Sixteen years. It’s hard to believe, isn’t it? In some ways, it feels like a million years ago, and in others, it’s still as fresh as yesterday. That’s true of any trauma, I think—of any