Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,for his steadfast love endures forever!Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,whom he has redeemed from troubleand gathered in from the lands,from the east and from the west,from the north and from the south. Some wandered in desert wastes,finding no […]
Book Review: Upright Downtime by Dr. Brian Hand
Entertainment dominates modern life. It is everywhere. And yet, Christians don’t seem to talk about it enough. We study doctrine and other key areas of Christian living, but a biblically sound, God-honoring theology of entertainment seems to be missing from the discussion. Oh, there’s plenty of reactionary discussion, i.e. whether […]
Haiku Trio: Angkor Wat
Jungle Seeded stone split, bred shoots, roots—life strangled secrets for a thousand years. Monkey Five-fingered feet lope, thief gibbering at lost gods. Beast with human eyes. Stream Stone bed monsoon-filled, liquid glass running over carvings magnified. The Khmer (Cambodian) Empire once ruled over much of Southeast Asia, and its kings […]
I Am SAM And This Is Why
It’s strange. Everyone else seems to be full of words to say about him, but I can’t describe him or his life. I can’t sum it up, and I can’t try. I can only write about me, the me that touched him every now and then. I am his first […]
A Poem Called “Desire”
I dreamed of summer, green and gold. The sun, he knew his strength of old– coolness dwelled in night and rain, and all things knew their place again. But a whisper came, a wintry breeze; the leaves fell tumbling from the trees, and I awoke to something strange– I remembered. […]
My Grievance Against God: Snakes
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 […]