In an interview about his book The Folly of Prayer (IVP, 2009), author and pastor Matt Woodley shared a story about his friend Theresa. Theresa was experiencing what St. John of the Cross calls a dark night of the soul—a period of spiritual loneliness and despair. Over the course of describing her story, listen to how Woodley discovered that what seemed most helpless in his ministry was actually ...

In his book Stories for the Journey, William R. White shares the story of Hans, a European seminary professor devastated by the death of his wife, Enid. Hans was so overcome with sorrow that he lost his appetite and didn't want to leave the house. Out of concern, the seminary president, along with three other professors, paid Hans a visit. The grieving professor confessed that he was struggling with ...

Because the fear of going to the dentist is so pervasive, Japanese scientists have created a special robot that enables dentists in training to learn how to be more sensitive to the pain of their patients. If the dental trainee tugs too hard on a tooth or hits a nerve, the robot actually reacts to the pain. In fact the five-foot-three robot has been programmed to say "It hurts" and to frown when it ...

Miss Potter tells the story of Beatrix Potter—well-known artist and author of several beloved children's books, including Peter Rabbit. In the following scene, Beatrix reacts to the death of her fiancée, Norman Warren. The two had become engaged in secret because of their differing social classes, and Beatrix was unable to be with him during his illness because her family had taken her away ...

Dan in Real Life is a movie about the life of Dan Burns (Steve Carell)—a widowed father of three school-aged daughters who writes a family advice column for several newspapers. In this scene, Dan meets a woman named Marie (Juliette Binoche) at a bookstore and feels, for the first time since his wife's death, a spark of romantic interest.

As the pair make their way to a local coffee shop and begin ...

Shortly after the tragedy of 9/11, a wonderful story of giving was reported by Page Ivey of The Associated Press. It emerged from a school house in Columbia, South Carolina.

First you have to have some historical perspective. Two years after the Civil War, with much of Columbia still in ruins, some of the bitterness over the North-South conflict was put aside by a single gesture: New York firefighters ...

Since its birth in 1947, the world's eyes have been on the famous Doomsday Clock. This symbolic timepiece measures how close the world is to "midnight"—that is, a nuclear or environmental apocalypse. It is officially set by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists magazine, a resource dedicated to educating the world about global security.

The magazine made news in 2007 when physicists collectively ...

In early 2006, San Francisco paralegal Mike Patterson started MyDeathSpace.com, an Internet site that details the deaths of MySpace members and offers links to the archived pages of their accounts. There's even a digital map that tracks the locations of all the deceased who are registered. Patterson's site lists nearly 3,000 deaths and receives over 100,000 hits a day.

Over time, MyDeathSpace.com has ...

Alonzo Mourning terrorized and dominated many opponents in the National Basketball Association during most of the 1990s. Then Mourning was diagnosed with a kidney ailment that threatened his career, as well as his life. After being away from the game for several years of treatment, recovery, and strengthening, Mourning is back with his team, but with a new perspective:

"I remember five, six years ago, ...

College English professor Jess Decourcy Hinds, of Brooklyn, New York, recently lost her father to a painful battle with bone cancer. Following his death, she was bothered by the central messages of most sympathy cards she received. Many of the cards tried their best to talk her out of the grieving process. At best, the personal notes simply sought to distract her. Someone inquired, "Are you applying ...