Faith Climbs

Finding God with Fog Lights

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The two-lane northern Michigan highway was frosted like a cake. There was nothing for me to follow but thin, black car tracks and the occasional fellow driver, whom I tried to stay away from. No street lights. Just darkness flooded with swirling flurries. I flipped on the fog lights. Sleek, dark pavement peeked through the snow. The sides of the road spilled off into powdery ditches leading to a thick wall of evergreens.

I was driving Up North, as we Michiganders call it, to my family’s cottage for our annual New Year’s ski trip. Continue Reading

Stop Chasing Stillness

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What do you do on the beach? I’m here now on vacation with my family, and my brain doesn’t get how to chill. I’ll sit out in the sun for a bit, but shortly thereafter my mind nags me to walk, write or devour books to keep it busy. You see, its automatic is fastness. Going. Doing. It time-travels even when I’m in the most peaceful places, places where worries should not go. In the midst of paradise, my brain tells me we’re not doing enough. It asks where life will take us next, and who with. Does this ever happen to you?

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No more Stranger Danger

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“Don’t talk to strangers,” our parents told us when we were kids—for safety reasons.

But now that I’m an adult kind of, I’m talking to strangers more—for safety reasons.

You see, I think we’re all a bit lonely inside. We all want and need to connect with others, but how do we possibly break the trance, interrupt the high-speed rhythm everyone’s flowing at? I’m beginning to see that this disconnected rush we’re in is more permeable than I thought, and mostly just an act. Continue Reading

Can a Whiteboard Change Someone’s Life?

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I began a new job six weeks ago, so I’m still meeting people and trying desperately to match names to new faces. One morning last week, a head appeared over my cubicle wall. It was an older man with smile lines and light gray hair. I had met him just briefly on my first day, but I remembered his name. Score.

“Can I talk to you about something?” he asked, smiling nervously. “Do you have some time to meet this morning?” Despite my smile, my face must have revealed my curiosity about his urgency, and the fact that we weren’t on any projects together.

“It won’t take long. I’d just like to show you something,” he said. I told him I’d stop by his desk at noon since I already had morning meetings scheduled. He grinned and walked away.

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