Before the Sun Goes Down
On December 27, 1657, thirty residents of Flushing, a small settlement in what is now Queens, New York, put their names to a letter addressed to the governor of the
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A
Whose Image?
In the spring of 1879, Standing Bear, a chief of the Ponca, a Native American people whose homeland lay along the Niobrara River in Nebraska, stood before a federal judge
Many Are Called
On November 24, 2009, President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama hosted their first official state dinner at the White House. The guests of honor were Indian Prime Minister
Who Get’s to Decide
For more than two years, the Mona Lisa lived in a wooden trunk in a small room in Paris. Not a reproduction. Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. In August 1911,
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The Mind, the Heart and the Feet
There was a lawyer in Paris who had every reason to think of himself as a good man. He was successful and respected. He had built a reputation representing widows
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Someone Got a Grape
In 2003, two researchers at Emory University conducted an experiment with capuchin monkeys. Sarah Brosnan and Frans de Waal had taught the monkeys a simple transaction. A monkey would hand
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One More Time
The F Word. It may be one of the most emotionally charged words in the English language. People say it in anger. They say it when they have been hurt.
Across the Courtroom
A woman stood in an El Paso courtroom and asked permission to cross the floor. Her name was Yolanda Tinajero. She was seventy-one years old. On the other side of
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The Jesus We Want. The Jesus We Need.
Every generation remembers certain moments when the entire world seemed to hold its breath. Millions stopped what they were doing, radios stayed on through the night, television cameras never looked
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Would You Recognize a Stradivarius?
There are certain questions in life that are so important they cannot be answered for us. A parent may guide us. A teacher may influence us. Friends may offer advice.
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Be a Window of Hope
There are moments when another person changes the way we see the world. Years ago, a young graduate student spent several months living with a Navajo family while conducting research
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The Coat
It wasn’t the man they were shooting at. It was the coat. The soldiers had entered Warsaw only days after the Germans began their retreat. The war was ending. After
Who’s Your Devonte?
There are moments when the world simply feels too large. Not geographically large, but morally and emotionally large. We awaken each morning intending to care, and before the day has
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What We Learn to Value
There are some lessons life insists on teaching. It teaches them slowly. Often quietly. Sometimes painfully. We rarely recognize those lessons while they are unfolding. A conversation with a parent.
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Before the Harvest
There are few things more satisfying than certainty. We like believing we know what happened. We like believing we know who is right and who is wrong. We like problems
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Difficult to Ignore
We’ve all been there. You call your child to dinner from another room. Silence. “Did you hear what I said?” “Yes.” “Then why didn’t you come?” “I wasn’t listening.” Because
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Still Learning
John Wooden, the Hall of Fame UCLA basketball coach who led his teams to ten national championships in twelve seasons, began each season with a lesson that surprised many of
Any Questions?
The poet and playwright Archibald MacLeish was once invited to lead Morning Prayer at Harvard’s Memorial Church. At first, he declined, explaining that his religious skepticism made him an unlikely
Love Has the Last Word
A fable tells of a little fish swimming near the surface of the ocean. One day he glanced down into the dark depths below and became frightened. “What if I
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Arithmetic of the Gospel
A man once complained to his pastor that the church was always asking for something. “Every Sunday,” he said, “it’s give, give, give.” The pastor smiled and replied, “Thank you.
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