I spend about 16 hours per week in the car. Too much music overloads my brain, so I’m always on the lookout for good podcasts. Everyone seems to rave about NPR, so I figured their “Story of the Day” podcast would be a good way for me stay mildly entertained and informed […]
My favorite singer ever to roam the planet has a new album and his first official music video to go with it. It is very nice. The only less than positive thing I can say about it is that some of the scenes with the older couples remind me of […]
I got a voicemail from Discover Card today making me aware of some suspicious activity and wanting to verify that my account had not been compromised. Feeling a little unnerved, I quickly gave the provided number a return call. After being connected with their automated system, I learned that three […]
Back when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sooser were having their home run battle, I wandered into a baseball card shop. Hoping to pull McGwire’s rookie card, I purchased a pack of 1984 Topps for about 5 bucks. Well, to my surprise and horror, the stick of gum was still in […]
This has been written about for awhile now, but we finally have the video. Dreams last for so long Cleveland fans.
This has to be the most confusing commercial I’ve ever seen. It’s touchdowns and chocolate and paper clips? Paper clips? What in the world? I do have to admit that the chocolate part sounds pretty good. It’s flirting and tasting and curiosity. It’s music and sensation and touchdowns and chocolate. […]
My friend Bethany started a wrestling blog and had this video posted. With all the noise in the world today, here was one guy who actually made sense.
My friend referenced the song “Forever Young” in a Facebook update in memory of his deceased father yesterday. It is a tender song that is, for me, very magical. I don’t know if it is magical for everybody, or only those whose formative years were in the 80’s. If your formative years weren’t […]
My first awareness of change within me came as I began to reflect on how I performed the mundane responsibilities from which I felt so alienated. Though I was not completely alive to them, I was able at least to think about them, if only from a distance. I was struck by how wonderfully ordinary life is. Simply being alive became holy to me. As I saw myself typing exams, chatting with a student on the way to class, or tucking one of my children into bed, I sensed I was beholding something sacred. My encounters with students presented astonishing opportunities to listen and encourage. Bedtime with Catherine, David, and John allowed me to convey the blessing and love of God to them. I was not yet fully alive to these ordinary moments, but I began to glimpse how profound they were.
In other words, though I experienced death, I also experienced life in ways that I never thought possible before – not after the darkness, as we might suppose, but in the darkness. I did not go through pain and come out the other side; instead, I lived in it and found within that pain the grace to survive and eventually grow. I did not get over the loss of my loved ones; rather, I absorbed the loss into my life, like soil receives decaying matter, until it became a part of who I am. Sorrow took up permanent residence in my soul and enlarged it. I learned gradually that the deeper we plunge into suffering, the deeper we can enter a new, and different, life – a life no worse than before and sometimes better. A willingness to face the loss and to enter into the darkness is the first step we must take. Like all first steps, it is probably the most difficult and takes the most time.
– Gerald L. Sittser, loser of his mother, wife and daughter in a car accident with a drunken driven. Taken from his book: A Grace Disguised: How the Soul Grows Through Loss.
