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"Chippie the parakeet never saw it coming. One moment he was peacefully perched in his cage. The next he was sucked in, washed up, and blown over. The problems began," as Max Lucado tells the story, "when Chippie's owner decided to clean Chippie's cage with a vacuum cleaner. She removed the attachment from the end of the hose and stuck it in the cage. Then the phone rang, and she turned to pick it up. She had barely said 'hello'…

I laced up my $100, Allen Iverson inspired basketball shoes and headed out into the bright lights. The huge crowd--it must have been at least twenty fans--sat on metal folding chairs just inches away from the sidelines, which made saving balls from going out-of-bounds quite dangerous. The backboards had no reinforcement, but none of us could dunk anyway. The floor of the court was not wood or composition rubber, but tile--like a bathroom. In fact, our opponents called our gym…

It's amazing the things a plant will do to try to get more light. I've noticed, for example, that where I live--where days on end can pass during the winter months without a verifiable sighting of the sun--houseplants will turn their leaves toward any last scrap of light the sky's gray ceiling grudgingly lets through, contorting themselves with what looks like either stubborn determination or blind instinct till they've soaked up as much light as the day will give. I've…

"You're going to love the Heights," Oshri tells me. "On a clear day, you can see all the way to Iraq." Oshri and I met earlier that night at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. My study abroad group had arranged to visit the University and meet some of the students. Afterwards, the Israeli students invited us out to a bar in West Jerusalem. Alcohol is against the rules of our program. This leaves me in the rather awkward position of sipping…

I love the Reformed church as a member, a pastor, and a theologian. I pray that it may have a future. My deeper concern, however, is for the future of the church, and that in a Reformed expression. Is there a future for the church gathered around confessions, church order, and liturgy as shaped by the Reformed Church in America's constitution? In the November 2009 Perspectives, Don Luidens and Brad Lewis worry about the future of the Reformed Church in…

Burn Victims by Paul Willis The oak trees by the creek are sweating blood. There where the fire passed through, pressed by the wind, their barks are blackened, and oozing through the singe, red beads of sap drip sorrowingly down to ashes. If we knew Gethsemane were not a garden anymore and wept itself, the knotty foreheads of each burl contracted in one brow of woe, our prayer would not be for life's cup but merely that our hearts might…

On the West Coast, two companies have become iconically known for their hospitality. When Swedish immigrant John W. Nordstrom opened his first shoe store in Seattle in 1901, his business philosophy was based on exceptional service, selection, quality, and value. After adding apparel in the 60's, the company became the largest-volume west coast specialty store and eventually recognized as America's number one customer service company. Their customer service is based on an attitude: place the customer's needs ahead of the…

There are few things in life that never disappoint. As a writer, David Myers is one of them. Here, once again, one finds his graceful writing and gracious manner, combined with a deep knowledge of psychological research and willing self-identification as a "faith-head" in the Reformed tradition. The letter is addressed to those, such as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, who argue that religion as such is both false and toxic. The "Why God is Good" part of the subtitle…

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace. Ephesians 1:7 On the day after Thanksgiving last year, representatives from the Collegiate Church--the oldest Reformed church in North America--held a ceremony of healing and reconciliation with the Lenape Native American people. Established in 1628 in what was then New Amsterdam, the Collegiate Church was the "company church" for the Dutch West Indies Company as it settled Manhattan. The Lenape…