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…

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Askew

But Mouse, you are not alone,
 In proving foresight may be vain:
 The best laid schemes of mice and men
 Go often askew,
 And leaves us nothing but grief and pain,
 For promised joy!

 Robert Burns, from “To A Mouse”     In You, O LORD, I have taken refuge;  Let me never be ashamed. …

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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…

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What Is Love?

“He talked a lot about the past, and I gathered that he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy… One autumn night, five years before, they had been walking down the street when the leaves were falling, and they came to a place where there were no…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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Things That Made Life Better This Year: 2011 Edition

I greatly admire those with the concentrated expertise to create Top 10 Lists at the ends of years. There seem endless iterations, from the predictable books and movies to the more niche markets, like Mediterranean cruises or ways to prepare bacon. Yet my admiration can’t make up for the fact that there are only a…

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This Year

Stop and look around you The glory that you see Is born again each day Don’t let it slip away How precious life can be With a thankful heart that is wide awake I do make this promise With every breath I take Will be used now to sing your praise And beg you to…

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The Use of Stories

“What’s the use of stories that aren’t even true?” Salman Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories Snow is falling hesitantly, halfheartedly over Kandern this Sunday afternoon. Our living room is the picture of calm, complete with soft Christmas music and my sister, Holly, cutting out snowflakes while Emily’s brother, David, writes emails. I compare…

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