History, Real Life and Faith
We lived in Hawai’i for four years in the mid-1990s and got to experience Christmas in a different climate and culture. That meant holiday-themed t-shirts and the exciting arrival of the Christmas trees the day after Thanksgiving. In those years, the arrival was a banner headline across the front page of the newspaper. Only one ship full of trees came…
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“It’s time,” Rose called from my Pearl Harbor driveway where her toddler sat in his stroller. I latched my daughter into her stroller and we took off down the street to pay our respects to the dead. We spent every December 7 for four years together, perched on McGrew Point to await the salute and fly by. When you live on Pearl Harbor, the…
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I love Christmas letters. Tell me all your great news, brag about your kids, allow me to rejoice with you! I want to hear what my friends are thankful for as they look back over the past year and anticipate the next. I also love to write my family’s Christmas letter. It’s an opportunity to crystalize my family’s year in…
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A ship capsized off the northern California coast last week and the Coast Guard arrived in time to save all seven people–which included three children under ten. It was a miracle in our frigid waters, because no one wore a life jacket. Like many writers to the editor of the paper, I was indignant. What were those parents thinking not putting…
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Several years ago I wrote a spiritual memoir I call Loving God Without a Label. It’s the story of how I found God and worshipped Him in many different settings across the United States and even into Europe. It’s not published (yet!), but it’s been instructive in my Christian walk–enabling me to recognize that how a person worships God is…
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In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” That verse from 1 Thessalonians 5:18 often trips people up and makes them want to argue instead of give thanks. “God can’t possibly mean for me to be thankful for _________________ (feel free to fill in your own blank.) But that’s not what the…
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