The Long Run

There’s only one seat left when I get on the track bus. Well, two seats really, but the one in the front technically belongs to a baby, and she should probably stick with her mom, Distance Coach, for now.  That leaves one seat, way in the back. It’s been ages since I was a “back…

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On Spring, Solitude and Serendipity

“Let him who cannot be alone beware of community… Let him who is not in community beware of being alone.”” –Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together It is almost nine and mostly dark by the time we get back down to village. It’s our second night staying in a house on the cliff 450 steps above Vernazza,…

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Real Life

“Hope is a thing with feathers, that perches on the soul,” she begins, swaying a little and looking down.  Her voice gains strength as she reads the familiar words.  Another student snaps a few pictures, and in only twelve lines she is done.  With a sigh of relief, amid two dozen clapping hands, she sits…

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Jumping (with Coach Dahlstrom)

I earn my living by writing a daily newspaper column. Each week I am aware that one column is going to be the worst column of the week. I don’t set out to write it; I try my best every day. Still, every week, one column is inferior to the others, sometimes spectacularly so. I…

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Proximity

“There’s something weird about playing games in the wake of terrible tragedies, but really, games are always played in proximity to tragedy.” John Green Friday morning, while I read about the new adaptation of Jane Eyre, my iPad clinks to life with a pop-up news alert.  These are the alerts that usually wake me up in…

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Hillside United

…So take nothing for granted. Stay wide-awake in prayer. Most of all, love each other as if your life depended on it. Love makes up for practically anything. Be quick to give a meal to the hungry, a bed to the homeless—cheerfully. Be generous with the different things God gave you, passing them around so…

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“I’m Not in the Book!”

Supplies: Pen or pencil Journal TEXTBOOK! “Wait, what?” Students filter in slowly from the hall, rummage around in backpacks for pencils and journals, then do double-takes. “What’s this textbook business about?” “Can I go get mine? It’s at home.” “Um… we have textbooks?” I nod and start to pull the class set out of the…

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Sharing and Chocolate Economics

I don’t teach sharing all that much. It’s not that I don’t believe in it, I promise.  I just get the impression that it’s a huge lesson in elementary school–getting kids to share the scissors and markers without too much drama–but since I never went to elementary school (gasp!) I can’t be sure.  By the…

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On Doing Hard Things

And I’m convinced that if the Christian church loses this generation, it will be not because we didn’t entertain them, but because we didn’t dare them… with the truth of the world. And it won’t be because we’d made the Gospel too hard, but because we made it too easy, and we just played games…

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Sie Versteht Alles

Kristi, sie versteht alles… I’m seated at a table at the Ochsen, a guesthouse at the end of town, where I’ve just finished my first rehearsal with the Kanderner Frauenchor, or women’s choir.  I’ve been invited with the rest of the choir to the 70th birthday party of one of the other singers, so I…

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