At the 1992 Winter Olympic Games in France, American figure skater Paul Wylie won the silver medal. The victory came after a disappointing tenth-place finish at the previous Winter Games in Calgary (Canada). In an anthology entitled Finding God at Harvard: Spiritual Journeys of Thinking Christians, Paul Wylie shares his long journey from disappointment to victory—a journey marked by many ups ...

As the recent winter approached, USA Today writer Larry Copeland wrote a story about the danger of "peephole" driving. Anyone who lives in the frozen north has likely been a peephole driver at some point. You're in a hurry to get to work on time, and when you walk out into the cold you find that your car is encased in a layer of snow and ice from an overnight storm. You start the car and turn up the ...

In a Seinfeld episode entitled "The Fix Up," Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld) and Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) are trying to set up a blind date for George (Jason Alexander) with one of Elaine's friends, Cynthia (Maggie Wheeler). Early in the episode, the scene shifts back and forth between Jerry's apartment, where he is describing Cynthia to George, and Elaine's apartment, where she is describing George to ...

In an article for ChristianityToday.com entitled "Our Divine Distortion," Christian songwriter Carolyn Arends shared a personal story that shows how easy it is to view friends as enemies when we are racked by shame or guilt—a dangerous trait that can have an impact on how we view God. She writes:

When I found a brand new lap-top for half price on eBay, I told my friend and musical colleague Spencer ...

Frank Allegretti, 64, was a meticulous pilot with more than twenty years of experience—which makes it all the more shocking to hear that he crashed the plane he was piloting in a Iowa cornfield because it ran out of gas. He died in the crash. Interviewed for an article about the crash, Allegretti's wife, Cheryl, said, "Like everybody has told me, he was the most cautious, [safe] pilot they ever ...

There was a passage that I memorized in college, and I confess it meant nothing to me for about 27 years. But now 2 Corinthians 1:20 makes sense to me: "As many as may be the promises of God, in him [or in Christ] they are yes."

Here is what I think Paul is saying in this verse: All of the promises of God find their ultimate consummation, their ultimate fulfillment, because of the work of Jesus Christ ...

Explaining why he doesn't Twitter, author and editor Skye Jethani writes:

I know I'll get grief for this, but in the 2004 film Shall We Dance?, one character had a really insightful bit of dialogue:

We need a witness to our lives. There are a billion people on the planet … I mean, what does any one life really mean? But in a marriage, you're promising to care about everything. The good things, ...

Americans who described God as "Friend" in 1984: 29 percent

Americans who did so in 2008: 18 percent

Americans who described God as "King" in 1984: 18 percent

Americans who did so in 2008: 23 percent

In a short devotional for Christian Standard magazine, Paul Williams writes about an unusually bumpy flight he once had from Philadelphia to Long Island. Being a frequent flyer, Williams wasn't all that concerned as the plane was batted around in the sky. Others, however, were grabbing onto their armrests or steadying themselves on the seat back in front of them. While observing the reactions of his ...

In 2008, the U.S. Postal Service delivered an estimated 19 billion cards, letters, and packages between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

In December 2008, despite a devastatingly bad economy, the nation's department stores reported $28.2 billion in retail sales—14 percent of the overall sales for 2008.

An additional $24 billion was spent via electronic shopping or mail-order houses.

U.S. Christmas tree ...