The Discovery of a Tune
“Play me a tune.” Sometimes a new song comes on the radio, and we get a kind of deja vu, as if we have always known the song, even if […]
Category Archives: The Heart of Faith
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Infectious Motivation
Around 362 A.D., at some fancy palace dressed in marble, Emperor Julian was fuming. Julian was the last of Rome’s pagan emperors, who led one last effort to revive pagan […]
And Suddenly It Rains
There is a huge open field near to where I live. The vegetation is low and the soil is dry, typical of southern Spain. I like to reflect and pray as […]
Which Good Friday?
When I was younger, Good Friday inspired me. While I was thankful for Jesus’ sacrifice, I viewed it as the heroic act of an individual, independent human being—an adult choosing […]
God is not an idea
“The Word became flesh.” Ever heard that phrase? I wasn’t aware of how explosive it felt to the original readers of the Gospel of John until I did some digging […]
Lost and Found
Last summer, on a sticky, oppressively hot Wednesday afternoon in New York City, I lost my fourteen year-old son. My son isn’t easy to lose—he’s 6’5 and nearly 200 pounds—so […]
What Makes a Speaker Persuasive?
In his treatise on rhetoric, when Aristotle set out to express the factor that makes a public speaker most persuasive, he elected an element not many of us would choose. […]
A New Past
The scene that launches Victor Hugo’s classic, Les Misérables, tells the story of a man called Jean Valjean. Jean is arrested for stealing a loaf of bread and ends up […]
God on the Dance Floor
Ballroom dancing must be the western culture’s last bastion of patriarchy. A few months ago Nikki (my wife) and I ticked off our to-do-list by taking up dancing. Like most […]
Christmas in the South
“Mama, it doesn’t feel like Christmas,” my five-year-old daughter declared while drinking hot chocolate on a steamy Sydney morning. “Why?” “Because we’re eating sweets and it’s hot…and we don’t have […]
Wondering Fair 