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I’ve just spent three months working five to six full days a week, sometimes late into the night, to finish revision work on my current work-in-progress.  After a conference call and some brain-storming, I knew what I needed and wanted to do.  What started out as a few changes and tweaks turned into a major re-write.  I love these characters and want readers to love them, too.  But I was also trying to do an allegory, and in some cases, two in particular, the people were just too perfect.  Real people have lots of flaws.  Now the characters do, too.

After Rick made his changes to the manuscript and those were put into the computer, I sent off the files to my agent, Danielle, who used her magic to put them all together in one nice big file before sending it off to Tyndaleans.    

Done!  Finally!  I felt relief.  For about half a day.  And then this black hole began to open in front of me.  Now what?...

The Boston Marathon bombings came as a shock to all of us.  Now everyone is scrambling for answers, asking why.  Though some politicians are loath to call this a “terrorist” attack, and are studiously cautious about making any reference to a religious war, most know it is.

This past weekend, our congregation celebrated the missions we support with 18% of our budget. Many of our members have served overseas.  Others are involved in local ministries such as food pantries, Gospel mission to reach alcoholics and addicts, crisis pregnancy counseling, and we are active in the fight against human trafficking.  Our “life groups” look for ways to serve our communities.  We are far from perfect.  We are sinners saved by grace, and an autonomous group of believers who strive to be more like our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ.

One of our speakers was Yoon Kwon Chae, a Korean Christian brother our congregation has supported for 35 years.  He and...

I’ve discovered a report called Wastebook 2013.  You all probably knew about it long before I did, but it’s eye-opening to find out what our government thinks is necessary.  Robotic squirrels?  A campaign to make more Americans crave caviar?  Martian meals?  Did you now it costs 2 cents to make a penny?  Floating outhouses for Oregon fishermen? 

Oh, I know.  It’s just a drop in the big bucket of taxpayers’ money.  Each little pet program isn’t that big a deal.    

There’s an active campaign going on the north coast right now to sign up MORE people for food stamps.  If you don’t want to use them for necessities like food, you can always sell them on line and get cash to buy whatever you want.  Like candy bars and condoms.  Or marijuana and movies.

More drops in the bucket.

It’s those seagulls I was talking about in a blog a few weeks ago, and a mentality that seems to permeate our...

Have you ever been to the beach and wanted to feed the seagulls?  The problem is you tear off a little crust from your sandwich and toss it to one, and ten more show up.  Toss a little more and a flock descends.  You start to wonder:  if I run out of bread, will I become the meal?

Turkeys are different.  They startle easily and run for the barn.  In the wild, they run for the hills. Of course, they’re very tasty.  Benjamin Franklin thought them majestic enough to be an emblem for our country.  I’m sorry, but Thanksgiving would be downright depressing.  There’s our national symbol lying stuffed and roasted and ready to carve up for hungry guests. 

And then we have the eagles.  Our forefathers were trained in the Bible. I know there are many who want to revise our history, but truth is truth.  The only two questionable Christians are Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, so when squabbling became intense at...