Memories of Chains Keep Elephants in Place

In his book Teaching the Elephant to Dance, James Belasco describes how trainers shackle young elephants with heavy chains to deeply embedded stakes. ...

Mother Recognizes "Dead" Daughter

In 1997, a rapidly moving blaze destroyed the Philadelphia home of Luz Cuevas. It was concluded that, tragically, the fire had killed and completely consumed ...

"Citizen Kane": The Pain of Loss

Citizen Kane, directed by Orson Welles, traces the life of fictional newspaper tycoon Charles Foster Kane (played by Welles) from childhood to his deathbed. ...

Earthly Memorials vs. Heavenly Glory

Tombstones are getting updated, at least in Hollywood. At Hollywood Forever, a 64-acre cemetery next to Paramount Studios, they produce multimedia narratives ...

Old Wounds Resurfacing

When my mother-in-law was first married, she was in a serious car accident that caused her to be thrown into the windshield (it was in the days before ...

God and Truth Relieve Agony

Lloyd John Ogilvie, chaplain of the United States Senate, recalls:

Senator Max Cleland, who lost both of his legs and his right hand in Vietnam, came to ...

McCain Struggles to Forgive Captors

Twenty-five years after being released from the Vietnamese jail where he was imprisoned as a POW for five years, John McCain visited Vietnam with his ...

Memory's the First to Go

Two elderly women in my church were discussing the problems of growing older.

One commented, "The worst thing is when your memory starts to go. I've ...

Forgiveness Can Be a Reminder of Sin

A woman came to me one time who had done something maybe fifteen years before that was pretty bad. Her husband told her, "I want you to know I forgive ...

Regret and Fear Are Thieves

We crucify ourselves between two thieves: regret for yesterday and fear of tomorrow.