Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21 (italics mine) “I think, I think, we can keep it under an hour. It’ll be tricky,…
Category: Life
The Runaway Bunny
“I will become a little sailboat, and I will sail away from you.” “If you become a sailboat and sail away from me,” said his mother, “I will become the wind…” The Runaway Bunny, Margaret Wise Brown “Am I late?” she breathes as she whirls into the room, a hurricane of red hair with bags–school,…
On Messes
Living in this beautiful mess is who we are. From “All I Am,” by Most People I’ve never loved messes. Not that I’m compulsively neat, of course. I have my blind spots, like everyone–mugs that sit on the counter longer than they should, that piece of paper still on the floor of my room, which is…
The Love We Share: M-Trip Sunday
We’re on the sixth slideshow when my roommate, Emily, leads her team to the front of the auditorium. The mostly-female team are all wearing the shapeless, colorful dresses that they wore for their week in a Central Asian village. This, along with covering their hair and serving the three men who accompanied them, was their…
Romania: Raising Walls, Raising Children
For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot says, “Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. And if the ear says, “Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this…
A New Square Inch
Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Romans 12:15 I’m sitting near the back of the auditorium on Friday afternoon, again looking over the tops of my students’ heads as the Chapel speaker weaves to the front of the room, carrying a microphone. After a few words of introduction he begins…
Now I Know in Part
“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.” I Corinthians 13:12 From the back of the gym, I look over a sea of heads to the stage, where our speaker for…
Risking Our Cool
“Who’ll read Uncle Paul? You have to read with a voice ‘like hard cheese being grated.’ Anyone?” A student’s hand shoots up instantly, and he snatches the highlighted short story out of the air, scanning his part seriously. The last class on Friday is gathered in a rectangle of couches in the Student Center, whose…
At the Ghost Fair: Wealth and Education
Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having…
On Basketball
“Y’all ready for this?” asks the sound system on Friday night, the classic 90s warm-up playing just underneath the percussive arrhythmia of bouncing rubber balls and squealing rubber shoes, all three sounds telling us one thing: the Game is about to start. When the pre-game clock runs down to zero, most of the students in…
The Way Home 