Stories have captivated humans since the dawn of creation mdash functioning as a way to pass down knowledge long before written language existed We rsquo ve all known the delight of hearing or reading a story and being immediately engaged by such opening lines as ldquo once upon a time rdquo The power of a story appears to extend beyond merely enjoyment when we listen to a story together our heartbeats seem to synchronize Though our individual heartbeats vary over the course of a day and might only match another rsquo s coincidentally new research indicates our hearts may all [... more]

ldquo The wind is tossing the lilacs rdquo With that opening line of her springtime poem ldquo May rdquo poet Sara Teasdale captured a vision of lilac bushes waving in gusty breezes But Teasdale was lamenting a lost love and her poem soon turned sorrowful Our backyard lilacs also encountered a challenge After having their most lush and beautiful season they faced the axe of a hard-working lawn man who ldquo trimmed rdquo every bush chopping them to stubs I cried Then three years later mdash after barren branches a bout of powdery mildew and my faithless plan to dig [... more]

The first time I took my sons to hike a Colorado Fourteener mdash a mountain with an elevation of a least feet mdash they were nervous Could they make it Were they up to the challenge My youngest stopped on the trail for extended breaks ldquo Dad I can rsquo t go any more rdquo he said repeatedly But I believed this test would be good for them and I wanted them to trust me A mile from the peak my son who rsquo d insisted he could go no further caught his second wind and beat us to the [... more]

ldquo What do you want to be when you grow up rdquo I was often asked that question as a child And the answers changed like the wind A doctor A firefighter A missionary A worship leader A physicist mdash or actually MacGyver nbsp a favorite TV character Now as a dad of four kids I think of how difficult that question must be for them There are times when I want to say ldquo I know what you rsquo ll be great at rdquo Parents can sometimes see more in their children than the children can see in themselves [... more]

Paul writes to these Philippian believers with an affection rarely seen in his other letters and even from his opening lines it is apparent that there is something drastically different about them Stephen gives us insight into what set them apart [... more]