One summer day, many years ago, my family and I set out on a little piece of the Appalachian Trail in Tennessee. A few minutes later, my three-year-old sister screamed. I looked down. “Rattlesnake!” It had bitten her. There is a good story here, what with the rattlesnake’s subsequent demise, […]
Pursat, Cambodia: On the River
When I was a child, we lived in the province of Pursat (Po-sat), in the city of Pursat, which straddles the Pursat river. The brown water flowed along, low in the dry season and running over into the streets in the rainy season. Men would pile white sacks of sand […]
Home Away from Home
I recently returned to the United States after a year on the mission field. I grew up on that mission field, so it is coming to the U.S.A. that is always a bit of an adjustment. When people say, “Welcome home!” it usually doesn’t compute. However, when I was standing […]
A Denunciation of Teleportation
I’ve been doing some thinking lately about teleportation, and I have concluded that I am totally against it. Doubtless you have seen those futuristic films where characters gleefully transport across great distances through a single, instantaneous, leap. Doesn’t it seem wonderful? Wouldn’t it be nice to do away with all […]
Series Review: The Sunlit Lands by Matt Mikalatos
The Sunlit Lands is a crossworlds, or “portal fantasy” series finished in 2021. The characters travel between our own world and another, magical world. The author, Matt Mikalatos, is a professed Christian, and this series is marketed as teen and YA fiction. I have just had the pleasure of finishing […]
Count the Cost–and Then Go!
When I was seven years old, my dad got sick. He never got better. I remember one day, years later, I was sitting upstairs in our house when a memory struck me. Daddy, healthy and strong, playing with me. Startled, I realized that my siblings (all younger than me), could […]
Hymn #280: I Ask Leave to Go
Sung this Tuesday, at a funeral. 1- I ask leave to go, oh, brothers, sisters–there can be no return– oh, to leave intimates, to leave blood kindred, oh, my beloved, we who have joined in such dear fellowship. 2- I ask leave to go–oh, precious beloved, be eased of grief […]
Eager Eyes Tugging at My Heart
I move carefully down the stairs, trying to put my feet where the metal frame offers the most support under each cracked, tin-covered step. The three classrooms above are empty now. The recess bell has rung, and all the students at the little English school above the church are out […]
A Christian Philosophy of Writing Fiction: God’s Reality
In the last post, I discussed objectionable elements in fiction, and three reasons that writers tend to include them: for realism, for hedonistic purposes, and to further an agenda (for or against). Using principles from God’s Word, I evaluated whether or not these reasons are valid for the Christian writer. […]
A Christian Philosophy of Writing Fiction: What to Do with Sin
We all know good stories, the ones that endure, that break your heart and change your life—that get told and re-told across centuries, ones children beg for at bedtime. Stories are powerful. No one denies this. They strike deep, and they linger; they enchant, and they slap us with reality; […]