Years ago, when we were young, my brother Gene had a dance band for which I played. He asked an attractive teenage girl to sing with his band, but she never got to do so. Her mother just had a baby and was suffering from post-partum depression. Her husband often spent his evenings at a tavern. One night, after her five children were in bed, the weary...

February 13th fell on a Tuesday that year, but it seemed like my unlucky day. My wife of twenty years was divorcing me; it would be final in two days. February 1, my employer had shown me the door—on the twenty-fifth anniversary of my employment. Now, on February 13, I was in my physician’s office getting test results. Unaware of my difficulties,...

Secret -concealed from general knowledge or view, hidden. (Webster's Dictionary) There are different kinds of secrets. Some are things hidden from our understanding, sometimes called the mysteries of life: how they built the pyramids, miracles, unexplained events. There are military secrets - confidential military matters, the CIA and spies. There...

A father in B.C. learns he has a deadly form of cancer.  How is he facing the challenge this Christmas season? Steve and Rachel Larsen clung to each other in a doctor's office that December day.  They had just received a stunning blow:  Steve, only 46, had cancer - and it was a bad strain.  "The tumor inside Steve's spinal cord is malignant,"...

Twelve days before Christmas, the mail brought a stack of season’s greetings and a divorce summons. As I gathered the envelopes, I had no idea that a single moment was about to slash decades of family memories and traditions: searching for a fresh, fragrant tree; snuggling by the fire as carols played; reminiscing over snapshots of a growing...

"Be not mistaken: our cause is never more in doubt than when a human looking out upon a world from which every trace of the Enemy [Christ] has been banished, asks ‘Why have I been forsaken?’ and yet still obeys." - CS Lewis, The Screwtape Letters Our difficult world We live in a world plagued by sickness, war, heartbreak and suffering of...

Shortly after September 11, 2001, the news media began airing coverage of Martin and Gracia Burnham, a missionary pilot and his wife, who were abducted by Muslim terrorists with ties to Osama Bin Laden.  The Burnhams remained hostages of the Abu Sayyoaf for more than a year, struggling to overcome constant fear, illness, and near-starvation.  The...