Since the 1940s, the Ad Council has been the leading producer of public service announcements. Of the thousands of commercials they have produced, their work for the "Don't Almost Give" campaign has been particularly powerful.

One ad shows a man with crutches struggling to go up a flight of concrete stairs. The narrator says, "This is a man who almost learned to walk at a rehab center that almost got ...

In a very difficult season when finances were tight, I was driving a dilapidated car that had been donated to the church. It had lots of problems, including a ceiling lining that drooped down and grazed my head every time the broken shock absorbers launched me from the seat toward the roof. The car began to speak to me. It said, "Failure." Why couldn't I get my life together? I was getting older every ...

Change in giving to religious organizations and churches in 2008: +5.5 percent (a total of $106.89 billion)

Change in overall charitable giving in 2008: –2 percent (a total of $307.65 billion, the first decline in overall giving since 1987)

Perfection, human perfection, is one of the rarest things on earth. The world of sports shows how rare, or short lived, perfection is for us. For example, last week (the week of July 20, 2009) as I walked out of the office and got into my car for my daily commute home, I turned on sports radio. The hosts were in the middle of an interview with White Sox ace Mark Buerhle, and they were excited. Soon ...

The film My Dog Skip is based on the childhood of American writer Willie Morris. It chronicles life lessons learned from a beloved terrier, a next-door neighbor, and the disappointments that flow out of a world at war.

Small for his age and bullied by other kids, Willie (played by Frankie Muniz) enjoys a special relationship with 18-year-old Dink Jenkins (played by Luke Wilson), who lives next door. ...

In the winter of 2007, a close friend of mine was felled by not one but two brain aneurysms. For weeks she lingered on life support, growing weaker each day. As her condition deteriorated, her children were called in to say their goodbyes, and her church prepared for a funeral. Then Linda suddenly snapped out of her coma. As she came to, she looked over at her husband and asked, "Where is everybody ...

As our Bible study group began focusing on the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20, I felt pretty smug. After all, I didn't worship more than one God, steal, commit adultery or murder, lie about my neighbors, or plot to cheat them out of what was rightfully theirs. But one evening we came to the command to honor our father and mother (v. 12). Against my will, I thought of my mother, who'd passed away ten ...

In an on-line article for Leadership journal, John Ortberg discusses how adverse situations are necessary for our spiritual growth. He writes:

Psychologist Jonathon Haidt had a hypothetical exercise: Imagine that you have a child, and for five minutes you're given a script of what will be that child's life. You get an eraser. You can edit it. You can take out whatever you want.

You read that your child ...

Many years ago, my wife and I were having a marital "moral discourse," and I was becoming increasingly agitated. In my fury, I yelled at her and aimed my fist at a section of the dining room wall. Unfortunately, the Holy Spirit failed to guide my hand between the studs, as he usually had done, and instead I hit a stud right on. I broke a knuckle.

A deathly silence settled in the room. While I came ...

My friend and I sat on my patio, drinking tea and catching up with life. She had just moved to a new situation, away from familiar work, beautiful spaces and valued friends, and she was experiencing the exhausting emptiness of a job that was too full, a context where she felt undervalued, and a place where friends were not naturally found. The tears filled her eyes as she spoke of her weariness, her ...