Fear
Thin Yellow Lines
Do you remember the first time you saw The Wizard of Oz? The moment Dorothy opened the door to the brilliant Technicolor of a new and foreign land? The strangeness of the houses and the munchkins’ clothing and speech–and the “Lollipop Guild”? “Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.” I had an out-of-Kansas experience in my early twenties when I moved across the ocean to teach in a foreign land: China. There everything seemed unfamiliar. I looked…
Suicide and Teens
So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10 If you’re a parent of a teenager, you are faced with innumerable challenges every day. Parenting a teen in the age of smartphones, social media, and internet is incredibly difficult and downright terrifying. Bullies, harmful internet content, and comparison-driven social media can now reach…
What I Feared the Most
In Job 3:25, Job says “the thing that I greatly feared has come upon me.” Anyone who knows the story of this great man in the book of Job will attest that Job’s greatest fears had indeed become reality. He literally lost everything in a matter of hours. This reminds me of a statement that I heard a long time ago likening fear to a magnet, attracting to us the things we do not want. In these days of uncertainty, it…