Miscellany
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One Thousand Gifts
When I first read about Ann Voskamp’s One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are, I couldn’t wait to read it. The title, and the trailer I watched over…
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Valentine’s Day
13 years ago today, a handsome young man came 800 miles to visit me bearing a diamond ring and a dozen roses. We went out to dinner at a restaurant where we’d sat…
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Heritage
Yesterday, my mother-in-law told me that she had led her father to the Lord. He had left his wife and family many years ago, when she and her brother and sisters were all…
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Ambivalence
Lately, I’ve been aware of how it dogs me: ambivalence. Double-mindedness. I intend to eat three meals, one helping, no snacks, no desserts. But then 4:00 hits. I graze. I intend to pray,…
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Knowing Christ Today
Do you think of religion as based on knowledge? Or do you find other words — profession, belief, commitment — more fitting to define its province? In Knowing Christ Today: Why We Can…
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Hinds’ Feet On High Places
Hinds’ Feet On High Places is a book that the worship pastor at our former church referred to often. I had tried to read it in college without much success, but he raised…
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The Prodigal God (and golden eggs)
Timothy Keller’s Prodigal God is a short book in which Keller uses the parable of the prodigal son as a framework for discussing two different types of lost souls: the profligate (the younger…
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A Landscape with Dragons
I didn’t like this book very much. At first, I thought I would. It seemed to promise a systematic look at fantasy stories. But ultimately A Landscape with Dragons is too alarmist for…
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The Hiding Place
The Hiding Place is the story of Corrie Ten Boom, a Dutch woman best known as a participant in the Dutch underground during the second world war whose home had a hidden room…
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Traveling Mercies
I picked up Anne Lamott’s Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith at the Friends of the Library Book Sale a few weeks ago. It sounded familiar, though I’m not sure where I’d heard…