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Renewing Faith

Rejuvenating Family

When Humility Leads to Mercy

As our tour atop the Maid of the Mist charted the Niagara River, we were suddenly overwhelmed by a sense of smallness. The 90-foot vessel, filled to capacity with 600 other eager spectators, rounded the meander to reveal the breathtaking wonder of the Niagara Falls. We were first inundated by the billows of mist. I steadied my…

The Weight You Don’t Have to Carry

We were loading the car for our annual summer trip north. Each year we go to upstate New York to visit my side of the family and then onward to Vermont for my wife’s side. As we broke down the packing instructions for the kids, we emphasized “bring just enough for 14 days.” Since my…

God’s Encore

One of the occasions my wife and I enjoy most is our children’s school choral concerts. After the concert, we stand and clap as loud and for as long as we can. We’ve sometimes stood clapping with the audience long enough to earn an “encore.” To our utter delight, the choir comes back and sings…

Standing Strong Amid Life’s Floodwaters

Ask any successful architect and they will tell you that the most important part of a building is not the façade but the foundation. Perhaps the most well-known example of a foundation failure is the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy. While this medieval edifice makes the top of the sight-seeing list for many visiting…

Serving the Least of These

Have you ever been driven to compassion for someone who was hungry, thirsty, sick, an outsider, or in prison? A few years ago, I went to the county jail to visit a childhood friend who was serving time. He could not figure out why someone whom he hadn’t spoken with in years would suddenly drop…

Burden-Lifting Love

The Pilgrim’s Progress tells the story of a man on a journey from his hometown to the “Celestial City.” This late-17th-century work, penned by the English Puritan John Bunyan, is the most famous Christian allegory still in print. In allegorical literature, the names and places represent a deeper spiritual reality. For example, the “Celestial City” is…

Triumphant Humility

Few would consider voluntarily moving into the slums to be the path to notoriety. But that is precisely the course the Albanian nun Sister Teresa (1910 – 97) took. She was sent by her convent to Calcutta, India, where she taught at a school among the well-to-do. Affectionately known as Mother Teresa, she followed her…

Standing on the Lookout: Anticipating Christ’s Arrival

If you leave our Cavanese pup, Sammy, unattended long enough he will most certainly venture to the window in our sun porch. The kids have officially designated the spot as “Sammy’s Lookout.” We think it comes from a built-in watchdog instinct. If he sees or hears another creature such as another dog or passing squirrel,…

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