At my new school near a large city the guidance counselor took one look at me and placed me in the lowest performing English composition class I rsquo d arrived from my inner-city school with outstanding test scores excellent grades and even a principal rsquo s award for my writing The door to the ldquo best rdquo writing class in my new school was closed to me however when the counselor decided I wasn rsquo t right or ready The church in ancient Philadelphia would rsquo ve understood such arbitrary setbacks A small and humble church its city had suffered [... more]

Nancy Gustafson a retired opera singer was devastated when she visited her mother and saw her decline from dementia Her mom no longer recognized her and barely spoke After several monthly visits Nancy had an idea She started singing Christmas carols Her mother rsquo s eyes lit up at the musical sounds and she began singing too mdash for twenty minutes Then Nancy rsquo s mom laughed joking they were ldquo The Gustafson Family Singers rdquo The dramatic turnaround suggested the power of music as some therapists conclude to evoke lost memories Singing ldquo old favorites rdquo has also been [... more]

I felt nervous about a five-week prayer class I agreed to teach at a local church Would the students like it Would they like me My anxiety was ill-focused leading me to over-prepare lesson plans video slides and class handouts Yet with a week to go I still hadn rsquo t encouraged many people to attend In prayer however I was reminded that the class was a service that shined light on God Because the Holy Spirit would use the class to point people to our heavenly Father I could set aside my nervousness about public speaking When Jesus taught [... more]