Chapter 31: Longing for a Break in this World

Some days are hard.  Some days are so full of stress and anxiety and fear and heartache that you long to get away. Like we did recently.  We went to an all-inclusive resort in a paradise called the Dominican.  It seemed as if we had been put down right in the middle of the Garden […]

Chapter 30 / When You are Holding on for Dear Life

One day in the late Spring they came to his cell in the Mamertine Prison in Rome and opened the door.  His executioners led him out of the city on the Ostian Road. As they were walking out, other travelers would have been walking into Rome.  They would have paid him little attention.  No one […]

Chapter 29 / God Chooses Unlikely Candidates to be His Messengers

If you saw her backstage you never would have imagined what fame was soon to come her way.  She walked out on the stage in a frumpy dress.  Slightly mussed up hair.  Bushy eyebrows.  Seemingly a bit old and odd for the competition.  But the moment she began to sing on Britain’s Got Talent she […]

Chapter 28 / God’s Search and Rescue Plan Involves You

William Pilkenton was one month away from turning eight years old.  His family had traveled from Bellingham, Washington, to Tofino, British Columbia for a vacation.  He and his father were walking up from the beach when his father turned to look for him and realized he was gone. When children go missing, fathers start looking.  […]

Chapter 27 / Finding the Door to an Eternity of Sundays

In the spring of 2010 archaeologists unearthed a 3,500-year-old door to the afterlife from the tomb of a high-ranking Egyptian official near Karnak temple in Luxor.[1]  This door was meant to take the official from death to the afterworld. Jack found another door to the afterlife.  He taught English literature at Oxford and spent many […]

Chapter 26 / Eliminate the Shanks From Your Life Swing

Butch Harmon, who has instructed professional golfers from Fred Couples to Tiger Woods, tells the story of the club member who was having problems with the shanks. That is, a poorly played golf shot. He spent 20 minutes trying to get him to work his stance, his weight transfer, his wrists, his arms and shoulders, […]

Chapter 25 / The Greatest Question of All Time

A BBC magazine answered the “101 greatest questions of all time.”[1]  What did they include?  Well, questions like “What is OK short for?”  Answer? “OK comes from ‘oll korrect’, a deliberately misspelled writing of ‘all correct.’ It was popularized in Boston newspapers around the 1840s when it was fashionable to go around spelling things incorrectly […]

Chapter 24 / Breaking Free from the Kingdom of Me

Only 14.3 acres in total land mass, it is a small kingdom unto itself.  Located in three separate areas in the United States—part in Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Northern California—you can leave the United States and enter the Republic of Molossia.  It is considered to be a micro-nation . . .  a “nation within” our nation. […]

Chapter 23 / Your Identity is the Most Beautiful Thing There Is

Imagine living your life with a false identity.  That’s what happened to Francisco Madariaga Quintela.[1] Just over 30 years ago his mother Sylvia was kidnapped by Argentine security forces.  Her husband Abel last saw his pregnant wife being pushed into a Ford Falcon by army officers dressed as civilians as she walked to catch a […]

Chapter 22 / When Jesus Comes Knocking

The knock came at the door of the inn.  It was late.  We can imagine the innkeeper had been burning both ends of the candle.  The census crowd had packed Bethlehem and he had finally locked the doors for the night. Until the knock.  He shuffled his feet through the dark and made his way […]