In 1877 the prairie to the north of our home was a rolling plateau of bunch grass. The stage road from Lewiston, where the steamers came up the Columbia from the coast, to Mt. Idaho, where the Milner trail wound through the mountains to the goldmines of Florence, would have been a dusty track winding … Continue reading The Nortons and the Chamberlains

“O Amelia Bedelia, your first day of work and I can’t be here. But I made a list for you. You do just what the list says.” Miss Rodgers to Amelia Bedelia Stop saying you take the words of Jesus literally because you don’t. We hear this here and there. “We take what Jesus says literally, we … Continue reading Red Letter Amelia

This story begins outside the shower houses of Grand Canyon National Park. We were newly married, newly showered, and late. The shuttle was scheduled to leave for Flagstaff in thirty minutes and we had a twenty minute walk to get to the stop. Amy was a tender twenty, taught well in the ways of Christian … Continue reading Tickets Please

We are told Christians don’t think of themselves. It is others, not themselves, they think of. To think on ourselves, we are taught, is selfish, and the less we focus inward the more we think only of others.  It is true, selfish people are self-consumed, but is really because we think of ourselves too much? … Continue reading Self Skills

Our neighbor Crazy George was along the road with his thumb up. I pulled over and ran the far window down. “Where you going?” I asked him. His large head and beard filled my window. “Uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh” he stuttered and strained to say he needed a ride to town. He carried a Stanley thermos and a … Continue reading John’s Dead

I am in a temple of trees, an arboreal sanctum of primeval heft and gloom. The trees knit the earth below, they comb the air. I taste their tangy scent - giant spruce, some fir, butter yellow larch. This is late stage timber, an aged forest blanketing the upper drainage of this Idaho creek. I … Continue reading Holy Hunt

The biblical call to submission, especially in the context of marriage, is not simple or easy. Marlin Sommers writes with rare understanding of what submission in Christian community is like. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians calls believers to submit to each other in the phobos (fear, reverence) of Christ. It also calls believers to love each other … Continue reading Husbands, Wives, and the Arsenal of Jesus’ Sacrificial Kingdom

On every summer weekend across the country, grills fire up and hot dogs blacken and burst. Beer tops pop, plastic chairs drag across cluttered patios and the intemperate laughter of revelers fills neighborhoods as America’s middle class sprawls undressed in the summer heat. As the hot dogs come off the grill, the immoral humor, the … Continue reading Ketchup

George lives a mile and a half from our house, in an old, sunken rental house so close to the road passersby could toss things inside left-handed. Often the front door stands open, with George standing in it, or on the shoulder of the road. He is likely a veteran, with a long gray ponytail … Continue reading The Other People