During the last few weeks before she died, my wife asked me to leave the bedside lamp on at night. She didn’t want to wake up in the dark, even with me close beside her. So I left the light on. It eased her anxiety a bit, and helped us both focus on Jesus, “the […]
My heart aches for the six young lives lost in the crash of school bus No. 366 in Chattanooga, Tenn. I think about their families, now facing Christmas without beloved children. I think about the kids on the bus who survived. Some of them suffered critical injuries; all of them experienced the horror of seeing […]
Remember the “Greatest Generation” that won World War II and turned America into a global powerhouse? Well, their spoiled grandchildren are the “Lousiest Generation,” says Johnny Oleksinski, a 26-year-old New York Post reporter. “Like a member of Alcoholics Anonymous, I must admit that I’m powerless to [change] my biological age,” Oleksinski lamented in a recent […]
Robert L. (Bob) Stanley, missionary and newspaperman, thought the stories of Southern Baptist missions should be reported with compelling detail, accuracy and professionalism. So he set out to make it happen. Stanley, 86, who died Oct. 21 in Fort Smith, Ark., after an extended illness, was a veteran news reporter — editor for the Dallas […]
The 70th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe came and went in May with relatively little fanfare. Perhaps the milestone passed quietly because fewer people personally remember the largest armed conflict in human history. The last U.S. president to serve in the military during World War II, George H.W. Bush, now […]
Some people really get on my nerves. People who disagree with me, for instance, because I’m always right. People who agree with me all the time are even more aggravating. How boring is that? People who have no opinion one way or the other are the worst. Yep, I like to argue, debate, raise objections. […]
“The look.” If you’re a parent, a teacher or a mentor, you’ve seen it on young faces. I’m not talking about the exasperated eye roll or the heavy-lidded look of indifference. I’m talking about that yearning stare into the middle distance, the look of someone in search of direction. If you’re a disciple maker or […]
There’s a disease on the move that’s even deadlier than Ebola. It is invisible and highly contagious. It spreads with lightning speed and paralyzes its victims. It turns people, communities and nations against each other. The disease is fear. Anxiety and dread seem to permeate our nation — and many of our churches — at […]
Former Southern Baptist missionary Brady Nurse pleaded guilty Oct. 21 in a federal court to fraudulently obtaining approximately $300,000 in mission funds over a period of five years while working as a logistics and business coordinator for the International Mission Board in Portugal. Nurse, 37, who resigned as a missionary in January, could face up […]
A gathering of Southern Baptist missionaries grappling with what’s working in missions — and what isn’t — welcomed a new colleague to the strategic discussion: IMB president David Platt. The long-planned conference, held earlier this fall in Asia, came at an ideal time for Platt, 36. The influential pastor, mission mobilizer and “Radical” author was […]