The prodigal son
This parable ends with a question but no answers, inviting us to become fellow writers
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On the way to destruction
The lollapalooza grand-daddy of all the off-the-wall Bible stories.
Broken Wholeness
They were quite the pair, the cook and her kitchen, both a little broken, both temporarily limited, and neither as new as they used to be.
Bigger than you can imagine
My 4-year-old nephew Simon asked, “Does God give hugs?” Yes, his mother said. Simon asked, “Do we have to wait in line?” His mother assured him that we don’t, that God can hug us all at the same time. Then Simon asked, “How big are God’s arms?”
Ted Studebaker exhibit at Ohio peace museum
The seven siblings of slain Brethren service worker Ted Studebaker gathered Sept. 11 at the Dayton International Peace Museum to view a new exhibit that opened in his honor on the 44th anniversary of his death in Di Linh, Vietnam.
Seeing beauty in the ordinary
I recently found myself sitting at a piano in a recording studio in the middle of the woods, playing an original tune about finding
beauty in solitude.
Distinctly Haitian, distinctly Brethren
What does it mean to be Brethren at Église des Frères Haïtien? Peace, love, and feetwashing.
Claiming a hem-of-the-garment faith
It could be that we, too, have sought comfort from a counselor, from a doctor, or from a friend. It could be that we have resorted to books for help, to pills for peace, or even to busy schedules to forget our pain. In the end, we are hurting and we are unhealthy, still woefully in need of a touch.
Lessons from kickball
I gave the ball a good, hard kick. It took flight and landed in a neighbor’s garden. I ran the bases and was headed for home when I got nervous—not about the ball’s landing in the neighbor’s garden, but about getting hit by the ball and getting called “out” before I reached home.
Baptism in once-troubled waters
In the distant past, our two groups had fought in court over water rights to that spring. But Bryseydi Diaz was holding firm. She would settle for nothing less than a river baptism.
The gift of sustaining love
Interstate 65 cuts through a massive wind farm in Northern Indiana. Driving through it from my Illinois home to the Happy Corner Church of the Brethren in Clayton, Ohio, last week, I got to thinking about a few different kinds of energy. For human beings, energy comes from many places—rest, work, space, closeness—and we all
