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Kathy, a friend of mine who serves as an elder at her church, recently shared an issue with me that she and her fellow leaders constantly wrestle with. "We always need more volunteers in our church, but it's so hard to ask moms to get more involved in ministry," she said. "They are already so tired, so busy; I don't even want to ask them to do anything ...

This Sunday, just before we left for church, my daughter stopped me as I passed through the living room.

"Look," she said. "The shepherds are headed home."

I followed her waved out, game-show-hostess arm and saw what she was talking about: the nativity. In our house—as in many—the crèche in our living room gets a lot of action ...

Last month, at a benefit for Breakthrough Urban Ministries, my friend Arloa Sutter—its founder and executive director as well as author of The Invisible: What the Church Can Do to Find and Serve the Least of These—said their ministry goals stretched beyond feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, finding jobs for the jobless and giving hope to the hopeless. ...

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I have friends all over the world, literally. I separated from Marine Corps active duty in 2008 and was honorably discharged from the reserves this year. Today, my dear friends from the military are populating the entire East Coast, California, Japan, Iraq, and Afghanistan just to name a few locations. Despite these once intimate connections, there have been times when some ...

The other morning I got up early to write, but while waiting for the coffee to brew, I turned on the TV. Big mistake. As I clipped through the channels, I stopped to watch the movie Freedom Writers. Again.

My friend Anita first encouraged me to see this movie, starring Hillary Swank and Patrick Dempsey. At face value, Freedom Writers is another one of those inspirational ...

A few weeks ago, I attended a book launch party for my former colleague Rob Moll's new book, The Art of Dying. While words like dying and caregiving normally don't compel me, I have to admit that during Rob's reading, I was hooked. I stayed hooked during our conversation afterward as he told me how women are leading the charge on transforming the way we care for ...

"Heroin? Our son is on heroin?"

Emotion washed over Laurie. How is he? How could he?

Laurie and Jason had just found out their 18-year-old son was in jail for heroin possession and use. They were overwhelmed with the shock and horror of it and with concern for their son.

As that reality began to settle in, they were overcome with a new thought: What would ...

Last month, I guest-lectured in a Women's Studies class at Bethel University. My topic was How Motherhood Shapes a Woman's Soul, but I ended up talking more about how motherhood sort of mirrors God, how being a mom (or hearing from moms) helps us understand God, his relentless love, his willingness to forgive and his patience with the whiney little complainers that ...

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One day, my sixth-grade science teacher announced we were about to begin a secret experiment. She immediately got our attention.

The clandestine study was an analysis of house dust. We would get to scrutinize the stuff under microscopes and find out what it contained. Stealthily, we collected dust samples from various locations in our households; the strict secrecy was necessitated ...

"If you had a whole day free what would you do?"

The question came to me in a small group setting, and the answer came immediately to mind: "I'd go somewhere beautiful to sit and think." You see, I'm addicted to thinking.

Though I can't go somewhere beautiful for the day right now I have been thinking. Thinking about conflict. I've ...