For the sake of all things beautiful, find me a better live performance than this one. It starts off innocently enough, but the tension gradually mounts and eventually explodes into the most raw, wild, heartfelt, disturbing and mesmerizing endings in the history of live performance. It is so amazing, I […]
The book “An Arrow Pointing to Heaven” describes an odd habit singer Rich Mullins cultivated during a music tour. The activity is described like this: During a concert tour in 1989, Rich performed the same ritual every night before going onstage. He had a dry-erase board and some markers. Each […]
I finally finished watching the 9-hour long Macho Man Randy Savage anthology and wanted to share what was, by far, the most touching moment. To set the scene, Savage had been with the lovely Miss Elizabeth since 1985. He started out his WWF career as a bad guy, often mistreating […]
If I stand here, I can see the Little Red Haired girl when she comes out of her house… Of course, if she sees me peeking around this tree, she’ll think I’m the dumbest person in the world… But if I don’t peek around the tree, I’ll never see her… […]
Lay a whisper on my pillow Red Sox. I’ve lost that lovin’ feelin and here are ten reason why. 1. They became too popular. It used to mean something to be a Red Sox fan. They didn’t always sell out every home game, win a ton of games and get so […]
I graduated from a theological seminary after college. Over the years, I’ve found that I’ve missed my fellow classmates at the seminary more than I thought I would. Yeah, some of the people were a little different, but I have a thing for quirky people. Also, everyone was really nice. […]
Relationships are complicated things – especially those conducted through a time warp. Here are 4 women for whom I would gladly turn back the clock with a love that transcends time. Olivia Newton-John in 1978. Oh my sweet goodness, my! I’ll never forget that summer night in 1997 when I […]
Does anyone else remember those Sally Struther International Correspondence Schools commercials where she ran through a list of degrees which you could pursue from the comfort of your own home? Was I the only 10 year-old who really wanted to go for the TV/VCR repair? Sally made it sound so appealing. […]
Watson has lots in common with a top-ranked human Jeopardy! player: It’s very smart, very fast, speaks in an uneven monotone, and has never known the touch of a woman. -Ken Jennings (ht: Ben S.) People always say that women are hard to figure out. I even touched on it […]
About a month ago, when I was taking some time off work, I signed up for a free trial of streaming Netflix. Wanting to know what the buzz was all about, I started watching the first season of Lost. A week and a half and 121.5 hours later, I finished […]
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.
