Chip Shots

Judging by his family tree, I'm not sure you would have expected him to amount to much. Growing up in a culture that prized ancestral purity, his was, to be honest, a little embarrassing. We would expect these family skeletons to be kept safely in the closet but there they are are in plain view. To start with, one of his ancient relatives, though prized for her heroic actions, never lost the demeaning moniker "the harlot." Even though her bravery was canonized it was always in the context of her formerly seedy lifestyle. Like many of us, she was never able to fully restore her reputation. Still, she became one of the maternal grandmothers of our famous figure. And that's not all. Another relative left an even more dubious mark on the family tree. What happened was this: a man's son died before his wife was able to grant him any children to continue the family line. In the custom of the day, the dead man's brother was given to the woman to marry. He died too. T...

For as long as I can remember, Kurt, our 15-year-old son, has been a helpful guy to have around the house. Even when he was very small, he loved to help Mom and Dad. He was just a little tyke when I needed to move twelve tons of dirt into our backyard. He had a little toy shovel which he used to help me fill the wheelbarrow. Shoveling dirt was never as much fun as it was that day. Of course his contribution to the load was miniscule compared to my own. Still, we had a blast working together. I loved working with him, and I loved the fact that he wanted to work with his Dad. For me, the important thing was not how much dirt he moved, but that we were doing it together. There is an important spiritual lesson in this little walk down memory lane. Many of us treat God like a spiritual MapQuest. “Show me the way,” we ask, assuming that God’s will is like locating the high school: east on Carefree Highway, right on 56th Street, left on Dove Valley. Make a wrong turn and you miss it entirely....