On a Mission

On a Mission

GPS, or SatNav for ‘real’ English speakers, is a beautiful thing, especially when set to ‘find shortest route.’ To save even one mile, you may travel twenty miles on secondary roads through gorgeous, bucolic countryside which you would never have discovered without...
Stretched into Shape

Stretched into Shape

When the kindly stork tenderly deposits our swaddled, newborn selves on the front stoop of the dwelling which will become our home, and the family which will become ours from this time forth, there is much in store. While we are bundles of genes and traits and...
Fully stocked, fully aware

Fully stocked, fully aware

Wouldn’t it be great if, when we were born, we were supplied with two certificates – our birthcertificate and another certifying that we were fully gifted for demonstrating grace wheneverthe need should arise throughout our entire lifetime? This second one would...
Not to the Swift

Not to the Swift

With only a bit of vim and vigor but suited up in Olympian runner’s spandex (moving right along), stretching out on the track like the others around me, putting on a game face, checking my shoelaces and my pinned-on runner’s number, I contemplate the 10,000 meters...
A Charge to Keep

A Charge to Keep

I was impressed! A young guy sent by the juvenile court system to the Teen Challenge center where I was teaching, was always ending his responses with, ‘Sir.’ He presented himself as extremely polite, well-mannered, respectful. It wasn’t long before I discovered that...
Oh the adventures we’ll have!

Oh the adventures we’ll have!

Prayer is a problematic process for Jesus’ production-oriented progeny (that’s us). Drilling down to the specifics of that alliterating statement, there are three principal prayer practices: 1. Humbling oneself. 2. Listening wholeheartedly. 3. Obeying submissively....
Dare I Ask?

Dare I Ask?

A ‘hunch’ is a guess, randomly cobbled together from various sources (most of them reliable) with a generous smattering of intuition and imagination. May I share one of mine with you? Now, to be completely frank, the premise of this hunch could possibly get shredded...
Remember those Collect Calls?

Remember those Collect Calls?

We all know, or have heard stories of, those supremely confident little children who pompously declare that they will not be in need of help, be it in getting dressed, figuring out how to play a new game, or pouring milk on their Froot Loops. We also can picture the...
Distractions? What distractions?

Distractions? What distractions?

Driving through fog, especially the freezing kind we encountered in Alberta in January, is wearying but also dangerous. A race car driver here in the US is experiencing brain fog as a result of a serious concussion from a wreck and is not yet cleared to race. People...
It’s Filed Under ‘T’ for ‘The’

It’s Filed Under ‘T’ for ‘The’

I have good news and I have bad news (I think). The good news is – that name?, that book title?, the author of that book?, that word ‘on the tip of your tongue’? – none are forgotten! They’re all in there, somewhere! The bad news is that our ‘filing...