Diandra Leslie-Pelecky, a physics professor at the University of Texas, wrote a book about the physics of NASCAR racing, and for her research she was given the opportunity to drive a NASCAR racer on the 1.5 mile track of the Texas Motor Speedway. With an instructor in the passenger seat, she drove the car at speeds up to 150 m.p.h. It was while accelerating to get up to that speed that the author ...

If any athlete was known for focus, it was Michael Jordan. In Jordan's book, Driven from Within, Fred Whitfield, president and chief operating officer of the NBA's Charlotte Bobcats basketball team, tells a fascinating story about something Jordan did while getting ready to go out one evening. When Jordan asked if he could borrow a jacket from Whitfield, he found that Whitfield's closet was filled ...

Arthur Burns, a Jewish economist of great influence in Washington during the tenure of several Presidents, was once asked to pray at a gathering of evangelical politicians. Stunning his hosts, he prayed thus: "Lord, I pray that Jews would come to know Jesus Christ. And I pray that Buddhists would come to know Jesus Christ. And I pray that Muslims would come to know Jesus Christ."

And then, most stunning ...

Forget your Members Only jacket. At Vintage21, a church in Raleigh, North Carolina, it's Owners Only. The church is eliminating the concept of membership entirely in favor of what they believe is a more appropriate description for the body of Christ: ownership.

Gyms and clubs have members. Vintage21 contends that these memberships are "painless to obtain and even easier to discard." Ownership, on the ...

More than a century ago, churches dotted rural North Dakota, providing hope for Norwegian, German, Icelandic and Ukrainian settlers. Today, churches are looking to people for salvation.

Ten of North Dakota's churches close every year as the communities they once served fade into history. Lacking the resources needed for maintenance, the buildings' futures seem to rest in the ability of historic preservation ...

I believe it to be a grave mistake to present Christianity as something charming and popular with no offense in it.

—Author Dorothy Sayers

Thomas à Kempis writes:

Jesus has many who love his kingdom in heaven, but few who bear his cross. He has many who desire comfort, but few who desire suffering. He finds many to share his feast, but few his fasting. All desire to rejoice with him, but few are willing to suffer for his sake. Many follow Jesus to the breaking of bread, but few to the drinking of the cup of his passion. Many admire ...

We want to be a saint, but we also want to feel every sensation experienced by sinners; we want to be innocent and pure, but we also want to be experienced and taste all of life; we want to serve the poor and have a simple lifestyle, but we also want all the comforts of the rich; we want to have the depth afforded by solitude, but we also do not want to miss anything; we want to pray, but we also ...

This is a true story. A businessman moved over slightly as a young man crowded into the airplane seat next to him. They both fastened their seat belts, and the businessman good-naturedly inquired as to whether the young man was traveling on business or pleasure.

"Pleasure," the young man replied. "I'm on my honeymoon."

"Your honeymoon?" the businessman asked, mystified. "Where's your wife?"

"Oh, she's ...

In the later months of 1862, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln was angered by General George B. McClellan's inactivity despite superiority in numbers over the Confederate forces. In the end, he wrote McClellan a letter consisting of only a single sentence:

"If you don't want to use the army, I should like to borrow it for a while. Yours respectfully, A. Lincoln."