Two weeks from tomorrow is the first day of 2022. As I write this post, uncertainties and anxieties about the existing and new variants of covid-19 continue to cloud the new year outlook. Recently I’ve been reading an excellent book on the first three hundred years of the Christian Church, The Patient Ferment of the… Read More The Corrective of a Long View of History
If you have not been a reader of historical fiction, I encourage you to discover its beauty and power. A few months ago I wrote a post about this genre of literature, The Power of Historical Fiction. In that post I described the way historical fiction draws us in to the context of a place… Read More More on the power of historical fiction
We have finished the first week of another School of Redemptive History. There have been many highlights as we look deeply into history and ponder the mysteries and challenges of what has gone before. But one statement of our first week speaker has struck me very hard: If you love people you will love pain.… Read More ‘If you love people you will love pain’
Life on the margins has its own power, but it also has its own special pain. After all, it is easier to live in the center where power is, where you feel you can have an impact on events and people that the margin doesn’t provide. But throughout history many of the key social, political… Read More Living on the margins away from the centers of power
I love to read. For the past 20 years plus, I’ve read on average 150 books a year. I even keep a list in my journal of all those books, so could prove it to you if you wanted! Books on history always figure prominently on that list, but not only non-fiction. I also love… Read More The Power of Historical Fiction
You may have seen the photo by now. Taken by Nirmal Purja, and now circulating all over the world, it shows this week a whole string of climbers waiting to summit the tallest mountain in the world, Mt. Everest. For some reason, this photo stopped me in my tracks. Here was one of the most… Read More It’s crowded at the top of Mt. Everest
I must confess my struggle with the constant question “how are you?” It comes at us every day, many times a day. It happens at really any place humans gather. It also comes with a certain felt obligation to respond in kind, even when you don’t want to. At least it does for me. But… Read More How long does it take to get over severe trauma?
Every five years the largest democracy on earth goes to the polls. It takes several weeks, countless hours of preparatory work, and thousands of election officials. Not to mention battalions of police to ensure fair and unblocked access to vote. But it is the amazing fact of several hundred million Indians taking the time to… Read More The largest democracy on earth is at it again
Those of you who have read my blog know of my deep love and interaction with the nation of Rwanda. I have posted before of the impact on me of spending a few weeks there last year, and I hope to go again. Right now is the twenty five year remembrance period of the Genocide… Read More Seeking forgiveness in person even 25 years later
If you have read my blog before, you have seen posts on Asian history and its often surprising (to some) place of having the first universities, a strong Christian faith until the 14th century, having the first hospitals and much more. Asia was also very inter-connected through the silk roads and its many branches, both… Read More The Future is Asian
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