We live in a world of fingers crossed behind our backs. In politics, it increasingly seems like you're rewarded for your ability to double-speak. But the problem isn't just untrustworthy politicians. We all have a tendency to waffle on our promises. Sometimes...

I lost one of my mentors last week. He played a large part in my theological studies and training. But more importantly, he inspired me with his faith in Christ and his compassionate heart. Those things impacted me more than anything else he taught me.

What’s it like to live in a relationship where one party is committed but not the other? Many (if not most) of us have experienced that, at some point; it’s sad, to say the least, and even worse when the commitment...

I met a man named Jack when I was working at the hospital last summer. He was in his early 80s and was struggling with a slow recovery from heart surgery. When I entered his room, he asked me to sit down and began sharing his story. His first marriage had ended when he was a young man, and he'd blamed God for his loss.

With a surging economy a couple of years ago, charitable giving was on the rise. Projections showed that donations from foundations and corporations were on track to grow by 5% or more, well ahead of the GDP. Strangely, the people least likely to contribute were the wealthiest people. One writer notes that “as people accumulate more wealth they tend to become more insulated and set apart from others...

We live in a culture that teaches us to protect ourselves from criticism. Some of us choose to hide behind a false front, presenting the world with an image that is different than how we feel inside. Some find fault in others as a way to avoid the same tendencies in themselves. We all distract ourselves and avoid the hard...

We live in a culture centered on getting and not giving. We're consumers. What makes us happy is getting the thing we want, as quickly as we can get it. From fast food restaurants to Amazon.com, we have created a society that delivers what...

Fear can protect us from hurting ourselves. It keeps us from driving too fast on the freeway, walking too close to the ledge of a tall building, or gambling too much in a high stakes poker game. At its worst, though, it keeps us from acting boldly in situations where we need to take a risk.

We live in a society caught in the grips of anxiety and depression. Young people are more prone to thoughts of suicide than previous generations. Recent studies struggle with locating a cause, and end up adopting such lame conclusions as greater competitiveness, perfectionism, and controlling parents.

We're all in search of hope. We want to believe things will work out in the end, that our dreams will come true. In the middle of disaster, we long for reassurance that the world will be set right. We want to know that our life...

On July 4, we who are in the United States celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It's a declaration of freedom, of a sort. Freedom is highly prized in the world today—not only in the United States but everywhere. We sometimes think of freedom in connection with independence—i.e., freedom from the control of another. Sometimes we think of freedom as having choices. Othertimes it means...

Truth no longer means what it did a few generations ago. Western culture has developed a disdain for absolutes—the conception that there is something behind the beliefs we hold dear. Morals have become a matter of preference. Religion is treated as mere opinion. Science now defines truth as our best explanation for the things we observe, to be conveniently replaced by a new “truth” the moment we see things differently.