“I love you. I’ll never leave you.” Julia saved her husband’s text message so she could read it whenever she was afraid. A troubled childhood had left her with a fear of loved ones abandoning her. She’d often ask for reass…

Aristotle said that no one can be friends with a god. Why? Because friendship requires equality, and what god would step down from their heavenly status to become equal with lowly human beings?
I wonder what Aristotle would’ve done if he’d…

Josephine Butler, a prominent minister’s wife, found herself campaigning for the rights of women accused (often unjustly) of being “ladies of the night,” those seen in society as the “least desirables.” Spurred on by her d…

Tim’s hotel room seemed extra dark at night. What if he got up at night and slipped and fell because he couldn’t see? But when Tim did get up, he was surprised to see a bright light shining from underneath the bed—lighting his path. A…

After a late summer thunderstorm ripped through our city, we had to deal with tree damage to our house plus a major cleanup of our leaf-and-branch-strewn yard. As I spent the following day dealing with the damage and the tree debris, I tried to humor m…

Over the years, I’ve encouraged and prayed for many battling loneliness for various reasons: nursing home residents whose family members don’t visit, the widow who spends her days outside so as not to be alone in her empty house, ministry l…

The deadliest forest fire disaster in US history was the Peshtigo Fire in Northeast Wisconsin. It occurred on the same night as the better-known Chicago Fire (October 8, 1871) but claimed several hundred more lives. Peshtigo, a fast-growing city of woo…

Kayla’s brow furrowed as she shoved yet another slip of paper into an overstuffed box labeled “Give It to God” on all four sides. Sighing deeply, she sifted through the written prayers she had previously placed in the box. “I re…

It was 1863. Edwin stood on a railroad platform in Jersey City. He watched as a young man was forced by crowds against a train car. The man dangerously fell into the crevice between the train and the platform. The train started to move. Edwin reached d…

In Charles Dickens’ classic novel Oliver Twist, the sickly Oliver is born in a workhouse, an institution notorious for exploiting the poor. Orphaned at birth, the boy eventually runs away due to abusive treatment. Through an amazing set of &ldquo…