[Beliefnet, March 5, 2000]Beautiful ring. Did you buy it yourself, or is it an heirloom? Beautiful faith. Did you choose it yourself, were you raised in it?
Such contrasts went through my head when I read a recent news story about a 12-year-old Jewish boy
[Beliefnet, February 10, 2000]News is that that dreamboat, Ned Flanders, is going to be a-v-a-i-l-a-b-l-e. Why are hearts fluttering and knees weak? Take another look at our man Ned: he’s got more than his share of gal appeal. He’s decked out in an impeccable suit of virtues.
I’m on the level here. OK, get past the adenoidal voice. Get past the round goggle-glasses. Get past the annoying chirpiness. Wait, go back to the annoying chirpiness.
[Christianity Today, February 7, 2000]
How much do you remember of your third-grade reader? Could you take a test today on the stories in it? Could you quote it authoritatively? Could you use the stories’ moral lessons to guide your life?
I can’t even remember the title of my third-grade reader, much less the storylines. I could only hazard a guess that the stories were about boys and girls having fun, a step up from previous years’ “Alice and Jerry” books
[Beliefnet, February 1, 2000]
You have to imagine, first, the seven babies curled and fitted around each other like puppies in a basket. Each has his or her separate water-filled sac, and within these sacs they rest or exercise, sometimes jostling their neighbors.
[Crosswalk, January 28, 2000]
Q. What would you say to a Bible‑believing Christian who “doesn't believe in organized religion”? A friend recently wrote to me: "God loves the Church (as in the body of true believers), but He can reveal anything to any person at any time.
[Crosswalk, January 28, 2000]
My mother-in-law' s phone call woke us up. “Hello?” my husband said, groggily. I could hear her voice piping, five hundred miles away: “It snowed last night! Two inches!”
[Beliefnet, January 24, 2000]
When I saw the pink earplugs in his hand, I felt older than I’ve ever felt in my life.
I had been invited to be a speaker at an all-day rock concert, and the host had warned me in a prior e-mail that the groups following me would be pretty loud. The afternoon bands, I was told, were “kind of mellow -- my mom likes these bands.” (Reading that sentence was the second oldest I’ve felt.) But “the bands at night are hardcore, which is very loud and the lyrics are basically screamed out.”
[Crosswalk, January 24, 2000]
Q. My friend Mike was trying to explain Christian faith to me over dinner one night, and he said something I could understand. He said to look at the Son of God, unjustly strung up like a criminal.
[Crosswalk, January 24, 2000]
A few weeks after Christmas the mega-vast-o-giant-super-warehouse-store is nearly empty. A few shoppers linger in the dog food and vacuum cleaner aisles, looking diminutive as fairies. Whole acres of luggage and appliances are deserted, and the vacant cement floors are smooth and clean. I expect to see a tumbleweed roll by.
[Beliefnet, January 10, 2000]
Some people say that art—make that Art—has become the secular substitute for religion. It sure acts like a religion: it's produced by high priests revered as conduits of a mystical power—in this case, creativity; it's tended and interpreted by initiates trained in its hidden wisdom; and it's mostly incomprehensible to folks on the outside. I've been a big fan of visual arts ever since I was an eight-year-old with my parents' big book of Salvador Dali on my lap. But the fact is, more people don't get Art in our generation than in any one before. Art responds to this by ridiculing them.
