One of the greatest honors ever offered to me came during one of life’s saddest times.
I was heartbroken last year when my good friend and co-worker Kurt De Haan died suddenly while out on his regular lunchtime run. Kurt was managing editor of Our Daily Bread from 1989 until the time…
In high schools in the US, being elected homecoming queen is a great honor for any young woman. But when a high school near Houston, Texas, crowned Shannon Jones, it was a special moment for her and for everyone in the community. Nineteen-year-old Shannon, who is an award-winning athlete and…
Hopelessness and anger combined to bring death to a young man in my neighborhood. Someone had beaten him up for something he said. To retaliate, he came back with a gun. The police were called. When they arrived he ran, shooting at them. To protect everyone, they shot him. He…
A pastor was asked to call on a woman in a psychiatric hospital and pray for her. After his visit, he thought how good it would be for somebody to go there regularly and pray for the residents. The “somebody” turned out to be him. On a table in one…
In his book Folk Psalms of Faith, Pastor Ray Stedman says he wishes that all churchgoers could stand in the pulpit on a Sunday morning and watch the faces in the congregation during the sermon.
Although most people seem to give the minister their attention, many have their minds elsewhere. Stedman…
In wintertime, a condition known as a “whiteout” sometimes occurs along the Lake Michigan shoreline. The air becomes so filled with powdery snow that you can’t see more than a few feet ahead. You feel totally helpless, especially if you’re driving, and that’s what we were doing on a bitterly…
David Isay, a radio producer, says that in a culture inundated with the stories of celebrities, we need to hear the recorded voices of ordinary people, because their lives and contributions are no less important. Isay is a driving force behind StoryCorps, “a national project to instruct and inspire people…
A social worker told her colleagues about a young boy in an urban ghetto who appeared to be little more than a bit of twisted human flesh. He had been struck by a car several months before and had not received proper medical attention.
Although not part of her caseload, the…
A woman named Nancy put this ad in her local newspaper: “If you are lonely or have a problem, call me. I am in a wheelchair and seldom get out. We can share our problems with each other. Just call. I’d love to talk.” The response to that ad was…
Perhaps the most effective advertisement ever written appeared in a London newspaper early in the 20th century: “Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger. Safe return doubtful.” Those were the words written by Sir Ernest Shackleton, the famous South Pole explorer.
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