Essay

A Most Excellent Story of Labor

It is an interesting time to think about workers and labor. In the aftermath of the Civil War, unions became increasingly vocal about defending the rights of workers. Some of the more pragmatic unionists accepted capitalism but wanted to minimize…
September 7, 2020
Essay

Maybe It’s Just Dinner With a Side of Grace

My friend and colleague Daniel Meeter retired at the beginning of July. Back in May, speaking at a Reformed Church Center event, he likened our current condition of quarantine and social distancing to Israel’s Exodus journey, especially in the way…
September 6, 2020
Essay

Tests

"It was a test," he told me, after pulling me aside. "It's a story I thought you'd like, a story I wanted to tell you." We were in the den, a couple rooms away from the jabbering coming the family…
September 4, 2020
Essay

Speak of the Devil

Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against…
September 3, 2020
Essay

Teaching: Year 30

This morning—perhaps even as you are reading this—I’ll be beginning the new academic year. My 30th as a college teacher. And fittingly, I think, I’ll be in the same course at 8 a.m. as I was in the fall of…
September 2, 2020
Essay

Pastors, Don’t Lose Heart!

This past week I had four separate phone conversations with pastors in four different regions of the country. While each of these conversations was unique, they all had a hauntingly similar theme. That theme went something like this:“I’m so tired.…
August 31, 2020
Essay

First Days and Other Beginnings

There were many things I was afraid of before I left for my study abroad semester in Chile back in the fall of 1996. Amidst a whole host of rational and irrational fears, the concern that troubled me most was…
August 29, 2020