When my father became ill near the end of his life, he fought death as hard as anyone I knew – just as he had willed himself to overcome every other obstacle in his life. He often told us about his mother who would set chairs across the kitchen to hold her upright when she could no longer stand. She had drilled into him, “When nothing but your will says go.” As his physical condition deteriorated, my father’s will to beat death only grew stronger. His enormous spirit to persevere that had served him well for so long was not open to – or capable of – allowing him to…

I was 38 when I realized I was a misfit in my work. I was teaching in a traditional boarding school on the East Coast and working overtime to adapt – but unsuccessfully. It was no one’s fault. It was simply not the right place for me. During that time I discovered a book by Ralph Mattson and Art Miller, Finding a Job You Can Love. Their writings changed my life because the authors (who then became friends) showed me that God had designed me in a particular way to accomplish a particular kind of work. I could try to shoehorn myself into a job but there would be very…

Many years ago when I was just out of the Navy, I spent a summer in Colorado working in construction. I met a carpenter named Jimmy, and although he wasn’t that much older than I was, he had an understanding of working with wood I had never seen – and haven’t since. Jimmy had been doing this so long that his work had become second nature to him. He was not an expert, but he was a craftsman. I think it was then that I decided I wanted to be the same – no matter what I did in life. I didn’t want to be a “knowledge worker.” I wanted…

Like most of us, I’ve heard the Parable of the Good Samaritan all my life, and one thing has remained constant. The Samaritan has always been presented as a second-class citizen to the Jews and as undesirable and unclean as a Gentile. The Samaritan is always the underdog – the victim – and the object of scorn, derision and even persecution. So naturally, I’ve been trained to think of them as victims who did nothing to deserve the injustice they suffered. Isn’t the point of the story that it’s the people we least expect to be compassionate who reveal our hypocrisy? Isn’t it those who have been demeaned who show…

Emily Dickinson said: “Tell all the truth but tell it slant.” As evangelicals we have too often been harsh, blunt, combative and intimidating in telling the story of the Gospel. Our insistence on bold proclamation has isolated our audience and made our creative efforts wooden, amateurish and unimaginative. We’ve not appreciated the wisdom of Eugene Peterson’s words in “What Are Writers Good For?”. “Our task is to counter the reduction of language to godtalk – language that is severed from a God-created and God-saved world, language that is depersonalized and functionalized. The dreaded godtalk.” Clearly, I am a fan of creative license and imagination, and I applaud an author’s ability…

If you watched the Academy Awards this year you probably heard Robert De Niro’s introduction to the Best Adapted Screenplay award: “The mind of a writer can be a truly terrifying thing. Isolated, neurotic, caffeine-addled, crippled by procrastination and consumed by feelings of panic, self-loathing and soul-crushing inadequacy. And that’s on a good day.” The next day I was in a conversation with a music artist and asked him if there was any truth in that. He assured me it was true, and every musician, writer and artist he knew was at times plagued by what he called “the inner critic.” While the term has been around for years I…

On April 6, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson and Congress declared war on Germany. Surprisingly, one of the first considerations of that act was the impact on colleges, universities, medical schools and cultural institutions. At the same time we declared war, we created the War Chest and the first charitable tax deduction that allowed individuals to make gifts to help with the war effort and shore up the few institutions whose support would be affected by the war. That decision did not affect many people at the time because fewer than 10 percent of Americans paid taxes, and the top rate was 7 percent. As well, compared to today, there were…

In a White House ceremony last Thursday, President Obama unveiled a new program, “My Brother’s Keeper,” that would be supported by the administration but funded with foundation and corporate sponsors. The initiative is designed to identify, evaluate and help expand those programs that are working best to help young minority males – primarily black and Latino – increase their likelihood of staying in school, staying out of prison, being good fathers, and finding access to economic opportunity. Ten major foundations made commitments of $200 million over the next five years, in addition to $150 million they are already spending in this area. In a conversation prior to the announcement I…

In a White House ceremony last Thursday, President Obama unveiled a new program, “My Brother’s Keeper,” that would be supported by the administration but funded with foundation and corporate sponsors. The initiative is designed to identify, evaluate and help expand those programs that are working best to help young minority males – primarily black and Latino – increase their likelihood of staying in school, staying out of prison, being good fathers, and finding access to economic opportunity. Ten major foundations made commitments of $200 million over the next five years, in addition to $150 million they are already spending in this area. In a conversation prior to the announcement I…