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Thin Places

I have a new article about Prenatal Testing at Motherlode, the parenting blog of the New York Times. It is called: “Deciding Not to Screen for Down Syndrome: Why Prenatal Testing Harms as Much as it Helps.” It begins: My pregnancy has been an easy one. No morningsickness, more than ample weight gain, minimal aches…

We’ve entered a new phase in our family life. Penny has started to ask questions. When we pick Peter up from the train, she’ll say, “How was your day, Dad?” Or when she meets someone new she’ll say, “Hi. What’s your name?” And of course there is the ever-present childhood question, “Why?” I hear that…

Thanks for the many insights and comments on the post “Idolatry in America, Idolatry in My Life.” I wanted to make one follow up point.  Let’s start with an analogy. If you realize that you are addicted to alcohol and want that to change, you abstain from alcohol. But if you realize that you have…

There are physical places that do something to our souls, that stir something inside of us. Often we even talk about those places in spiritual terms–those places evoke something that feels connected to God, or the divine, or whatever you choose to call it. As I’ve written before, I learned a few years back that…

A few articles of interest this week: David Brooks’ piece about the way the recession is changing not only “the American dream” but particularly the Christian response to the American dream: “The Gospel of Wealth“ I was going to recommend Time Magazine’s “The New Drug Crisis” in the current issue, but I guess they’ve decided…

I have a review of the book Following Jesus Through the Eye of the Needle in this month’s edition of Books and Culture. Click here to read this review. The book is a memoir about the author, Kent Annan’s, year in Haiti trying to live among the indigenous people. Though it was written before the…

One of the editors over at Patheos recently asked a slate of bloggers to respond to the following question (in 100 words or less): When you can’t drop everything for a year-long spiritual pilgrimage, how/where do you seek spiritual renewal in times of personal crisis?  She asked it in response to Eat, Pray, Love, with…

Penny and William went to school together today for the first time. This year, Penny will be in a public preschool program every afternoon, and she and William will both attend a local private preschool on Monday and Wednesday mornings. William was delighted to join his sister at “tool,” although a little disappointed that they…

Dear Samantha:  Thirteen years ago, God gave you to us; a beautiful, perfect little baby girl with blue eyes and a heart shaped face. Your dad and I rejoiced at adding another child to our family and giving your brother Joseph a younger sibling. How could we have known then what a huge impact you would make…

As some readers know, I had the privilege of getting to know my mother-in-law as she battled terminal cancer a few years ago. She died on September 11, 2003, so this time of year often brings me back to the “thin place” of suffering and beauty, of joy and sorrow, of reconciliation and tearing apart,…
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