Recently I published a Foreword to a new novel by Greg McKitrick, A Walk in the Thai Sun. This book is a detective novel with a twist. Every detective novel has twists, but this one twists toward an exploration of Christian faith as it unfolds in the unbelieving heart of the protagonist, a retired police detective whose missionary son has been murdered. Have a look at the book trailer, and here’s my Foreword:Continue reading
Michelangelo said, “My soul can find no staircase to heaven unless it be through earth’s loveliness.” I experienced a little of that loveliness last week at the official launch party for my new book Twenty-One Candles: Stories for Christmas.
This, the fourth and final installment of my series on Contemplative Prayer, contains a beautiful excerpt from George MacDonald’s fairy tale The Princess and the Goblin.
While there are many books on meditation and contemplative prayer that outline various methods, I believe the essence of this prayer is not a method but simply resting in God’s presence: loving Him, and letting Him love you.
We cannot speak of contemplative prayer without addressing the notorious problem of controlling or silencing one’s thoughts. You may ask: In order to practice this prayer of quiet, of focussing on deep feeling, how can I completely still my mind? When I try to become quiet, my thoughts race more than ever. Well, the brain was made for thinking, and you can’t stop your thoughts any more than you can stop grass from growing. Besides, you want to remain open to thoughts that may come to you from the Lord. So don’t even try to suppress your thoughts.Continue reading
This week I begin a four-part series on contemplative prayer. I call it “Feeling God” because it strikes me as odd when Christians talk of hearing God’s voice when what we really mean is feeling God’s voice or presence.
Here it is! The official book trailer for Twenty-One Candles: Stories for Christmas. I don’t mind saying that I’m mighty proud of this book and deeply pleased with it. After all, it gathers together twenty-one stories that span my entire 30+ years of writing. Originally written to send out as Christmas cards to friends, I now send these stories into the world.
What, you may wonder, is the meaning of this outlandish title? Thirteen years ago my friend Chris Walton (pictured with antlers) spoke this word to me in the parking lot of Ricky’s All Day Grill, and we burst into gales of laughter. Find out why in this story, a selection from my new book published this week, Twenty-One Candles: Stories for Christmas.
(Incidentally, most of the stories in this book are fiction, but this one is true.)
Jacob wrestled with an angel. These days we wrestle with computers.
On Saturday morning I was locked in a mighty struggle with my iMac. Or rather, it was the iMac that was locked, and I was striving to unlock it. I had to repair my hard disk, but every time I tried to run the repair program, a big gray padlock appeared on the screen, demanding something called a “firmware password.”
For the life of me I could not recall the password, nor could I find it recorded anywhere. It was like being locked out of my own house. Just then a knock came at the door.
Those of you who have visited my website a few times will know that while I have a blog page, I’ve posted to it only occasionally. That is about to change. From now on I plan to post a new blog once a week. To explain why, I begin with a piece called “Death of a Luddite.”
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