Several years ago I ran a marathon. I trained hard to be as prepared as possible, but there's a part of a marathon that's always hard to prepare for. A marathon is just a little over 26 miles, but experts tell you not to run over 20 miles in your training. That means the last six miles of a marathon are "no man's land." You don't know what you're getting yourself into. You may hit a wall. You may ...

In an interview with Carolyn Arends, singer and songwriter Sara Groves explains why she begins her 2007 album Tell Me What You Know, which primarily addresses social issues, with "Song for My Sons":

I wondered how my kids would finish the statement, "My mother always said … " What would they say? Besides, "You get what you get," "Don't throw a fit," and "That doesn't fit in your nose"? I would ...

Like most couples preparing for a wedding, Dave Best and his fiancée were probably worried about whether or not everyone would show up on time for the ceremony on July 6, 2008. They didn't need to worry about their friend Dave Barclay, though. He was so excited about the wedding that he showed up a year early!

When Dave Best wrote Barclay, telling him about the July 6 wedding in Wales, Barclay ...

I was at the post office in the last days before Christmas. After helping me conduct my lengthy business, the pleasant, helpful postal clerk uttered what is surely her standard line: "Is there anything else I can do for you?"

I quipped, "Can you help me pay for Christmas?"

Without missing a beat, she replied, "He already paid for it."

I was stunned. Pleased, surprised, a tad embarrassed—a strange ...

Theologians use a phrase to talk about how Christ-followers are already redeemed but will not experience the fullness of redemption until they live with God in heaven. The phrase is, "The already and the not yet." How does that work exactly?

A little girl in England, Josie Caven, was born profoundly deaf. Growing up, she often felt isolated because of her inability to hear, but that changed after receiving ...

Henry Ford is one of the biggest names in American life. His use of mass production in manufacturing the Model T automobile shaped not only the economy and industry, but the values of 20th century America.

A 2005 biography of Ford tells the story of the man who achieved incredible fame and fortune, and describes how, in the end, this "gifted man was undone by his own success."

Ford loved the ordinary ...

Some years ago my wife and I went to see Shakespeare's Hamlet. Near the end of the play there is a climactic fight scene—guys swordplay all over the stage. Well, that night, right in the middle of all that action, Hamlet suddenly shouted, "Stop! Stop!" All the actors stopped and looked puzzled. Then Hamlet stepped to the edge of the stage and said, "Someone's been hurt. Is there a doctor in ...

When asked about the most disheartening thing that had happened to him, Marilyn Manson answered, "I think that the world's been ending since the day I was born, and it keeps beating toward that every day. One half of me wishes that it would get it over with; the other half of me has this optimism that I can contribute something worthwhile."

I was told that John came from a well-to-do family, but because he was mentally handicapped, they rejected him. Somehow John came to our community, and Daddy and Momma took him in. John would stay with our family for a while and then go to another place. This seemed to be his life pattern. I was just a baby at the time, so I have no recollection of John during the time he lived with us.

Sometime in ...

The best-selling Left Behind fiction series attempts to describe the various evils that will, according to the authors Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye, accompany the last days. It makes for fascinating reading. As any novelist will admit, it's much easier to get people to read about vice than virtue, about unfolding evil rather than pages upon pages of good.

Another example comes from the pages of church ...