My watch was finally over. I was tired, but not ready to sleep. I rolled into my bunk on the submarine and opened the Bible. Someone had given it to me years before, but I’d never looked inside. I wasn’t the Bible-reading type. People called me “Bad Bob,” a name earned through heavy drinking, causing […]
That was a dumb thing to say,” Jerry taunted as we walked down the hall together. I shrugged. “Guess so.” My wrong answer in seventh-grade English had been embarrassing enough. I didn’t want to be reminded. “You guess?” Jerry’s laugh was shrill. “Listen, Carson, that was one of the all-time stupidest things of the year!”06 […]
I remember feeling unwelcome in my family as the youngest and only girl of five children. I was named by and after my father, who wanted a fifth boy—that’s how I got the name Toni. As a child, I hungered for loving words and hugs from my parents, but I didn’t receive any. Instead, at […]
“There’s no sign of the morning coming. You’ve been left on your own, Like a rainbow in the dark, Just a rainbow in the dark.” I turned my boom box up a notch and danced around my room playing air guitar and banging my head to the heavy metal rhythms. I could relate to the […]
Go ahead, Mark, you had one an hour ago. You might as well have another one now. You can’t possibly make your life any more miserable. I leaned against the garage workbench in our house. The late morning sun brightened the open entrance to the garage. Songs of chirping sparrows filled the air. While peace […]
Leave Judea now? Just when throngs were coming to be baptized in preparation for Messiah’s coming kingdom? The disciples of Jesus discussed the sudden news, their voices tinged with disappointment and perplexity. “John, you’re close to the Master. Has He mentioned where we’re going next?” James, John’s brother, probed. “He only stated that we had […]
It was a cool, crisp October morning when I set out from my mountain home on a journey that I intended to be my last. I began my travels that morning in 1998 with a determination to end my life. My plan had been well laid. Nothing on Earth could dissuade me from completing it. […]
Not all the wisdom and skill of man can produce life in the smallest object in nature. It is only through the life which God Himself has imparted that either plant or animal can live. So it is only through the life from God that spiritual life is begotten in the hearts of men. Unless […]
Wanna go for a drive, Karen?” Harry asked late one night as he switched off the television set. I watched from under my bedroom door as Momma put out her cigarette and replied, “Okay, just let me put my shoes on.” Harry grabbed his keys, and they headed together for the door. That was my […]
In many ways, I had an idyllic childhood. My memories of growing up with my two brothers and a sister are happy ones. Even though my dad was a busy pastor, he always prioritized time with his family. After high school, while studying nursing at a Christian college, I met Kevin Powell, a young theology […]