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Christian education

Where has all the creativity gone?

Education needs to be about great books and great ideas...

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"Is This The Worst-Ever Era of American Pop Culture?" That was the question asked by a recent Atlantic article about the sheer number of prequels, sequels, remakes, and expanding “cinematic universes.” Among the most notable recent examples in the world of film is Wicked, which reimagined the world of Oz.

The same creative stagnation can be seen in music. While earlier generations could produce distinct kinds of music, it’s increasingly difficult to find meaningful stylistic differences today. Some of the most popular songs aren’t even composed by humans but generated by AI. Where has all the creativity gone?

Many explanations could be offered, but one deserves particular attention. There’s been a precipitous decline of the kind of education in America that awakens the moral imagination, enabling students to think creatively and innovatively within a framework of what is enduring and true. In its place is an education oriented around expressive individualism, where children are encouraged to “follow their hearts” and “look inside,” rather than first know the true, good, and beautiful.

Classic stories develop a life-long love of learning

Classical Christian education is uniquely positioned to fill this void. At its best, the modern classical education movement seeks to recover what Dorothy Sayers described as "the lost tools of learning.” Such an education – centered on great books, great ideas, and classical languages – aims not merely at information transfer but at the formation of a virtuous life. Students are trained in virtue, encouraged to emulate heroes, and invited to explore and embrace visions of greatness. In the process, many develop a lifelong love of learning.

Vigen Guroian offers a compelling account of this formative process in his book Tending the Heart of Virtue: How Classical Stories Awaken a Child’s Moral Imagination. He explains how classic children’s stories like Pinocchio, The Velveteen Rabbit, and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe can shape a child’s moral imagination. Young readers are transported into worlds filled with wonder, surprise, and danger. As they imagine themselves alongside heroes and heroines, the images and metaphors of the stories linger and shape how they experience the real world. Children internalize concrete pictures of good, evil, love, and sacrifice by which they can interpret their own lives. When the moral imagination is awakened, Guroian concludes, the virtues come alive with personal, existential, and social significance.

C.S. Lewis made a similar point in The Abolition of Man. After criticizing the dominant educational models that fail to form human beings, he described how education should cultivate students “with chests.” The “chest” mediates between reason and appetite, enabling students to not only recognize what is noble and what is base, and discern between that which deserves love and that which does not, but to also choose rightly between them. This moral formation reflects what makes us truly human.

Creativity has to be grounded in Truth

If popular culture is to experience a renewal of genuine creativity and innovation, classical Christian education may well be the taproot. Ironically, the renewal of innovation doesn’t begin by encouraging innovation for it’s own sake, or from an obsession with what is trendy or new. Rather, it will begin with an immersion in what is permanent and true. It will begin with curious hearts and minds that are trained to think imaginatively within a meaningful moral framework. As Russell Kirk once observed, the works that endure are not those rooted in nihilism, but those that appeal to enduring truths and therefore to posterity.

If classical education is to be Christian, it must be tied to the grand biblical story of Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration. Learning that is interpreted through a Christian worldview will affirm the dignity of human nature and will also acknowledge its limits, clearly distinguishing between Creator and creation. Within this rich moral universe, students are inspired to imagine and create in ways that honor what is true, just, pure, lovely, virtuous, and praiseworthy.

Classical Christian education offers a compelling model for education in an age of cultural decadence. It is anchored in Christ, “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” By forming the moral imagination, Christians are equipped to not only resist cultural stagnation but to create culture anew, as co-laborers with the One who even now is “making all things new.”

This Breakpoint was co-authored by Andrew Carico. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to Breakpoint.org. This is reprinted with permission from the Colson Center.

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That which bubbles up to the surface

The Reformed theologian R.C. Sproul, (1939-2017), is quoted as saying: “… laughter is precisely the kind of thing that will always confound scientists because it is so intensely human. It is that which bubbles up to the surface from the parts of us too deep to fit in a test tube. “Which is why it’s so funny, and telling, that they try. One of the most common forms of humor is when the prideful take a fall. The Emperor’s, shall we say, exposure, comes from this fertile field. How much more ridiculously prideful can man be then when he thinks he can come to a fundamental understanding of man? How can we not laugh when one of us takes another of us and earnestly tries to squeeze us under a microscope? And when our bellies begin to shake, instead of joining in the fun, the fool scientist sits down to take notes. “ That which bubbles up to the surface, that is to say, laughter, is a gift, and it is biblical. God gave us the gift of laughter. It is a good thing, for example, when we acknowledge something amazingly wonderful with a burst of happiness. Remember Sarah who, when she became a mother, exclaimed in Genesis 21:6: “God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me." Ecclesiastes 3:4 notes that there is a time “to laugh.” Likewise, Proverbs 22:17 notes that a “joyful heart is good medicine.” And Psalm 126:2, one of the songs of ascent, speaks about “mouths filled with laughter.” There are other instances, but these are enough to point to the fact that laughter, good laughter, is a gift from God and a healthy one. The Holy Spirit deemed Sarah’s laughter of such importance that her burst of joy was written down in Scripture – an illustration that acknowledgement of God’s goodness can be a time of sheer joy. The Spirit also deemed it important that Bible readers know that it is good for one’s health to shake with mirth. *** On the other hand, there are thoughtless words and “bad jokes” which can mock holy things. We have to be extremely careful in discerning what we may laugh at. There is foolish laughter, shallow laughter, and there are times when we ought not to laugh. Most people are familiar with the Reader’s Digest’s column entitled “Laughter is the Best Medicine.” As a matter of fact, waiting in a dentist’s or doctor’s office, many pick up the magazine and read the amusing stories which these pages relay – stories which cause wholesome smiles. As well, both parents and school teachers, often recount numerous delightful incidents of children redefining words, unwittingly bestowing warped meanings which generate heart-warming chuckles. Richard Lederer’s book of Anguished English records many funny bloopers and blunders in the English language. Here are some smiles unintentionally created by children during school hours. Q: “What is the capital of Italy?” A: “I” “Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston in 1809 and was found unconscious. Three days later, he died in 1849.” “A liter is a lot of newborn puppies.” “Some people can tell time by looking at the sun, but I have never been able to make out the numbers.” “The hydrogen bomb is sometimes called the itch bomb. I don’t know why.” “Our new teacher told us all about fossils. Before she came to our class, I didn’t know what a fossil looked like.” Misplaced and strange phrases, as well as grammatical errors, can entirely change meanings. These errors can feed our day-to-day existence with ear-to-ear grins. Newspapers, for example, often contain strange but chortling information. “The patient lives at home with his mother, father, and pet turtle who is presently enrolled in day care three times a week.” “She was numb from her toes down.” “She typed the list of numbers alphabetically.” “The patient’s vision was 20.20 in both ears.” “He has a long history of a short leg.” “The patient was bitten by a bat as he walked down the street on his thumb.” Norman Cousins, (1915-1990), was an American journalist. He was diagnosed with Ankylosing Spondylitis in 1964, when he was 49 years old. Things looked so bad for the man that he was told by doctors to put his affairs in order. Upon hearing the diagnosis, Norman left the hospital and decided upon an unusual course of action. Firstly, he began to take an extremely high dose of vitamin C every day, and, secondly, he rented a movie projector and began watching comedies – comedies such as the Marx brothers’ films and Candid Camera reruns. It is recorded that Norman Cousins laughed and laughed until his belly hurt. He later wrote: “I made the joyous discovery that ten minutes of genuine laughter had an anaesthetic effect and would give me at least two hours of pain-free sleep.” Cousins died in 1990, not of a worsening of the Ankylosing Spondylitis condition, but of heart disease. The aforementioned book by Lederer also recorded guffaws of amusement generated by signs posted on public buildings. On a travel office: “Don’t take a chance on ruining your vacation – come to us and be sure.” On a barbershop window: “During construction, we will shave you in the rear.” On a gas station: “We’re out of Rolaids, but we’ve got gas.” On a furniture store: “We promise you the lowest prices and workmanship.” On a dry-cleaning store: “Ten-minute parking for cleaning customers only.” Outside a country-kitchen restaurant: “Restrooms/Please wait for a hostess to seat you.” On an office: “Would the person who took the stepladder yesterday please bring it back, or further steps will be taken.” In the countryside: “Quicksand warning! Any person passing this point will be drowned. By order of the District Council.” On a store: “This is the back door. The front door is around the back.” Outside a pre-school: “Please slow drively.” Signs in foreign countries, trying for perfect English, have also wreaked havoc with the English language, causing much amusement for tourists. On a building in Japan: “Beauty saloon.” On the wrapper of a Russian ice-cream bar: “Do not taste our ice cream when it is too hard. Please continue your conversation until the ice cream grows into a softer. By adhering this advisement, you will fully appreciate the wonderful Soviet ice cream.” In an ad by an Israeli professor: “41, with 18 years of teaching in my behind. Looking for American-born woman who speak English very good.” In a Leipzig hotel: “Ladies, please rinse out your teapots standing upside down in sink. In no event should hot bottoms be place on the counter.” In a Beirut hotel: “Ladies are kindly requested not to have their babies in the cocktail bar.” In a Shanghai buffet: “You will be able to eat all you wish until you are fed up!” Earth laughs in flowers. So said Ralph Waldo Emerson. We, however, live in times in which it often appears as if we can see nothing on earth about which we can chuckle or laugh. Rumors of war, economic distress, famines, hatred, a turning away from truth are reasons for sadness. And we do well to know this. Yet humor and laughter are important to the Christian life. God has created the emotion of laughter within us and, by virtue of that fact alone, we can treasure it. It can be perverted, so we do well to be careful. The preacher, Charles Spurgeon, (1834-1892), rejoiced in birds and flowers and many ordinary things around him. Yet he also often struggled with depression and personal tragedies. He remained, however, a man of great joy and humor, believing joy and humor to be vital in the life of a Christian. He loved to share good jokes with family, friends and colleagues. A fellow pastor and personal friend, William Williams, wrote about Spurgeon: “What a bubbling fountain of humour Mr. Spurgeon had! I laughed more, I verily believe, when in his company than during all the rest of my life besides. He had the most fascinating gift of laughter - and he had also the greatest ability for making all who heard him laugh with him.” Things which induce clean laughter or amusement increase our ability to perceive happiness and are a gift of God. Conversely, a somber Christian, one who never smiles or laughs, is often Christian devoid of gladness....

In a Nutshell

Tidbits – January 2026

Thrill seeking Ray Comfort is generally a pretty calm and tactful sort, but he has little patience for Christians who want to get a rush by jumping out of airplanes. "If you’re a Christian and you are tempted to jump, instead of catering to your thrill-seeking ego, think of someone else other than yourself. Think of those who love you and those for whom you are responsible. This injudicious world doesn’t know any better. You should. Think of the more than 150,000 people who die every 24 hours, and if you want a thrill, get up on a soapbox and tell dying sinners how to find everlasting life. That will kill your ego." Illuminating humor Q: How many actors does it take to change a light bulb? A: Only one. They don't like to share the spotlight. Q: How many aerospace engineers does it take to change a light bulb? A: None. It doesn't take a rocket scientist, you know. Q: How many visitors to an art gallery does it take to screw in a light bulb? A: Two: one to do it and one to say "Huh! My four-year-old could've done that!" Q: How many Dutchmen does it take to change a light bulb? A: Change? On "neutral" education "Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil." – C. S. Lewis What really matters in a marriage partner? What really matters in a marriage partner? Is it looks? Looks fade. Is it a man's ability to provide? Jobs and money can be lost. In his book Meaning of Marriage (pages 125-126) Tim Keller asks us to re-evaluate the way we evaluate potential marriage partners. "Most of us know that there is some truth in the stereotype that men overvalue beauty and that women overvalue wealth in a potential mate. But if you marry someone more for these things than for friendship, you are not only setting yourself up for future failure – wealth may decrease and sexual appeal will decrease – but you are also setting yourself up for loneliness. For what Adam needed in the garden was not just a sexual partner but a companion, bone of his bones, and flesh of his flesh. "If singles accepted this principle, it would drastically change the way people seek a marriage partner in our day. It is typical for a single person to walk into a room and see a number of people of the opposite sex and immediately begin to screen them, not for companionship but for attractiveness. Let’s say three out of ten look appealing. The next step is to approach those three to see what rapport there may be. If one of them will agree to go out on a date, and you get romantically involved, perhaps you will see if you can turn that person into a friend as well. This problem is many of your best prospects for friendship were likely among those you ruled out because they were too tall or too short, too fat or too skinny. "We think of a prospective spouse as primarily a lover (or a provider), and if he or she can be a friend on top of that, well isn’t that nice! We should be going at it the other way round. Screen first for friendship. Look for someone who understands you better than you do yourself, who makes you a better person just by being around them. And then explore whether that friendship could become a romance and a marriage." Great warnings Sign in store: “Unattended children will be given an espresso and a free kitten.” Where are they, and what direction are they heading? Douglas Wilson on two key questions to help us assess the state of public figures and private ones too: "First, just as we evaluate individual lives by the video, and not by the snapshot, so also we should measure churches, denominations, seminaries, and so on, in the same way. In short, there are two fundamental questions to ask — the first is where are they? and the second is what direction are they headed? "On a two-lane road between Heaven and Hell, two cars can be at the same place in the road, but still headed in completely opposite directions. To expand the illustration, one car can be closer to Heaven, but headed the wrong direction, and the same for another car closer to Hell, but outbound." Why public education can't be neutral "Obviously, the schools are not Christian. Just as obviously, they are not neutral. The Scriptures say that the fear of the Lord is the chief part of knowledge; but the schools, by omitting all reference to God, give the pupils the notion that knowledge can be had apart from God. They teach in effect that God has no control of history, that there is no plan of events that God is working out, that God does not foreordain whatsoever comes to pass. "Neutrality is impossible. Let one ask what neutrality can possibly mean when God is involved. How does God judge the school system, which says to him, 'O God, we neither deny nor assert thy existence; and O God, we neither obey nor disobey thy commandments; we are strictly neutral.' Let no one fail to see the point: The school system that ignores God teaches its pupils to ignore God; and this is not neutrality. It is the worst form of antagonism, for it judges God to be unimportant and irrelevant in human affairs. This is atheism." – Gordon H. Clark The deniers "If anyone could rationally be labeled a climate-change denier, it would be one of those who hold the absurd view that our climate was tranquil until we started to emit significant amounts of CO2." – Tom Harris, executive director, International Climate Science Coalition. Great warnings II In Sigmund Brouwer's The Lies of Saints, the hero, Nick, is helping out his friend Kellie who is laid up in the hospital, the victim of a particularly nasty car crash. Nick is a good friend, and the perfect gentleman – he knows she has a boyfriend, so he would never think to act on his attraction. Or so he thinks. But a pastor who knows both of them – the eighty-something Samuel Thorpe – is more than a little concerned. He knows that what a man intends can change quickly, given the wrong sort of circumstances. So when Nick pops by the pastor's office for a visit, Pastor Thorpe decides this is the time for a needed, awkward conversation. "'It's a ticklish business to be friends with a woman,' Samuel said, 'particularly one like Miss Kellie. She's fine-looking, and smart and of good character. I'm certain you're not blind to that. I doubt for that matter, that it's escaped her notice that a woman could do worse than land a man like you. But as you mentioned, she's in a committed relationship, Nick.... Now I'm not suggesting that you have or intend to do anything inappropriate. But it's like driving a car. Good drivers aren't the ones who can handle a car in a skid and keep it on the road. Good drivers are those who recognize when conditions are bad and take action not to get into trouble in the first place.' "'Kellie's in trouble,' Nick said. 'She needs help. That's all I'm doing.' "'You don't have to justify your motives to me. Just beware of them yourself. All I'm saying is if there's trouble way up the road, it'd be a lot better for you to see it coming and slow down before you reach it.'" Deep dad thoughts Why are pirates called pirates? I don't know - they just arrrrrr. I threw a boomerang months ago. Now I live in constant fear. Where do you take someone who has been injured in a peek-a-boo accident? The ICU I asked my son what he learned today, and he said: "Dutchmen like Sony, Scots like Yamaha, and Italians prefer Bose." I looked down at my little man and just shook my head. "Son," I told him, "don't you know those are just stereo types?" How do flat-earthers travel? On a plane. I once got a job at a canned juice company, and got along great with everyone there, but they had to let me go because I just couldn't concentrate. ...

Christian education

Teaching English from a Christian perspective, as brought to you by the Letter C

As Christians, we are rightly thankful for what has been brought to us by the letters A, B, and C, and the letters D through Z, through which we may read the word of God. Our culture, too, so highly values the ability to read and write that it supports the public school teaching of those skills, as well as the related skills of listening, speaking, viewing (the "reading" of visual images), and representing (communicating through visual images). But Christians have even stronger reasons for valuing language and communication, since we know a personal God, who communicates his love and glory to us. So how does a Reformed teacher live out his faith, and enable his students to live out their faith, in the Language Arts classroom? Well, unsurprisingly, given the title, there are (at least) six different things that make the Reformed language arts classroom distinct, all beginning with the letter C. Christ-Centered First of all, Reformed language arts teaching must be truly Christian, or to put it even more strongly, Christ-centered. Obviously this is true of all Reformed education, but what does it actually mean in the Language Arts classroom? For one thing it means Christ's birth, death, resurrection, ascension, and rule should be at the center of our discussions of literature and life. In Schindler's List, for example, Oskar Schindler is frequently spoken of as a kind of savior, since his factories kept many Jews out of the concentration camps. A Christian discussion of the film (or of the novel upon which it is based) will ask how Schindler fails as a "savior," and deal with whether Schindler himself recognized, directly or indirectly, his own need for the Savior. Other kinds of literature either exclude the possibility of salvation, or the need for it (since man is "naturally" good), or show it less directly as being accomplished by some character's heroic acts (or his or her "decision" for Christ). A Reformed teacher will discuss with his students how to react to the false gospels of our culture, and will demonstrate how even these false gospels show the need for the true Savior. Finally, Reformed Language Arts teachers will show and kindle passionate love for literature that fully acknowledges our need for salvation through God's grace alone, and demonstrates that Christ is both Savior and Lord. Covenantal Reformed Language Arts instruction is also covenantal. How? I am not referring simply to the fact a Reformed teacher teaches covenant children (although this is true). My point is that our communication must be a response of thankfulness (our obligation) to His love (according to His promise). This doesn't mean that we can't write for personal reflection or entertainment. It does mean, however, that our more personal writing will reflect on more than just whether we are meeting our own "personal goals" – something that government curricula take for granted as a primary focus of personal reflection. Rather, students should learn to make explicit their understanding of their relationships with God – to "meditate on your precepts and consider your ways" (Psalm 119:15) – and with others through Him. As far as our communication with others is concerned, our basic goal should be "speaking the truth in love" (Ephesians 4:15) and communicating "what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen" (Ephesians 4:29). For instance, the novels Peace Shall Destroy Many and The Chosen both deal with isolated religious communities' attempt to deal with the increasing secularism of the society in which they exist. Their response is to withdraw from that culture – an idea that is clearly less than fully faithful. A Reformed language arts teacher will encourage class discussion, journal writing, presentations, and essays about how and whether we fall prey to the temptation to withdraw, and what we might do about that situation of failing to be light and salt in the world. Cultural Education in a Reformed language arts classroom is also cultural. I have already mentioned that as Jesus commands in Matthew 5: 13 - 16, we are to be involved in the world around us. To do that, we need to know the culture in which we live – its idols, and how we may well be rather impressed by those idols ourselves. To gain that knowledge, we study literature - both contemporary literature for a glimpse of our own culture, and the "classics" for a glimpse of the roots of current ideas and attitudes. One other reason to study the classics has been given by C. S. Lewis, who recommended that we read at least two old books for every current one we read. Why? Because like a fish in an aquarium, we are living in our culture, so we may not even see its errors clearly. Lewis said that reading the books of the past is like putting on a new pair of glasses, because while old writers also made errors, they were different errors – ones that we have often learned to see through. At the same time, the old writers saw things about purity, love, and godliness that our own culture may have blinded us to. Counter-Cultural Although Reformed language arts education is cultural, it is also counter-cultural. For example, I use Frank Peretti's Prophet in my Grade Eleven media studies unit on journalism and news coverage. The novel rewards study in two ways. First, it sheds an interesting light on the way the news can be packaged to promote various agendas. Secondly, the novel has its own weaknesses, coming from a somewhat Pentecostal, and arguably Arminian, point of view, which can promote discussions about exactly how the Spirit does do His work among His people, and how God exercises His sovereignty in man's salvation. After we analyze both of these issues from a Biblical perspective, I challenge students to respond concretely to the errors of our culture by writing a letter to the editor and/or a critical or persuasive essay. Creativity The challenge of responding concretely, to both Christ and culture, brings us to the fifth element of Reformed language arts education: creativity. Though we must test (and challenge) the spirits of our age, we cannot stop with a purely negative and critical approach. We must also be positive, using our talents in communication to glorify God and build up the neighbor. This is why the students in each grade of my English classes must submit a piece of work to be published, or at least considered for publication, by someone outside the school. There are plenty of places to seek publication: the annual Remembrance Day Contest and various poetry contests, magazines like Reader's Digest and Reformed Perspective, and books like Chicken Soup for the Soul. Whether or not a student gets published, he or she must write a process paper dealing with the issues faced in crafting his or her work. Cooperation The aspect of Reformed language arts education that I find hardest to carry out is its communal/cooperative nature. When a baby is baptized, God’s covenant promises to him or her are witnessed by the whole congregation, the body of Christ. Two chapters in the Bible deal extensively with how the members of the body are necessary for each other's welfare: Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12. Covenant youth should be trained to seek the good of the whole congregation, to work together, to build each other up. Unfortunately, the students' all-too-human nature often makes this difficult, since group projects – setting up an assembly together, putting on a drama skit, or presenting a dramatic reading of a poem – often mean that some try to ride on the coat-tails of others. This can be avoided by giving each group member a distinct role and responsibility (as in the body of Christ), by cementing the cohesion of the groups with various team-building activities, by assigning groups smaller tasks with more supervision at first, and by assigning "group" work outside the school walls. For example, students can be assigned to write up the memories of older members of the congregation, for an anthology of anecdotes about various moments in history, thus requiring them to work with people they might rarely, if ever, talk to otherwise. The most challenging part of bringing out the communal aspect of communication, however, lies in encouraging more gifted students to support their fellow learners without short-circuiting their learning. The best way to meet this challenge is to ensure that the tasks a teacher gives his or her students are meaningful and thoughtful enough to require everyone's participation. However, equally important is the kind of examples students have seen of Christian cooperation within their school, churches, and families. How well do we, as adults, model a patient attitude toward those weaker than ourselves - neither ignoring them, as our competitive and individualistic society tempts us to do, nor taking their independence from them? Conclusion As you can see, Reformed language arts education is a colossal challenge, requiring caring, commitment, compassion, and consistency. A Reformed teacher must not only teach effectively, but also model the values he or she teaches. This can only be done, with many shortcomings (with which I am all too familiar), through the work of the Spirit, by the Word and prayer, and within the communion of the saints. I would love to hear from any of my fellow saints out there whether these thoughts have struck a chord. (There, I ended with a c-word.) This article was first published in December 2014....

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My journey with books

It has been a long journey of books for me. I grew up with books, and as a child read from The Book of Knowledge encyclopedia, the Bobbsey Twins series and Grace Livingston Hill’s books. It was my own love for books which had me keep my nursing and my Bible College textbooks. But it was not until I met my husband-to-be John that I really discovered what it was to have books in the house – here was a man who loved books! On our very first date, when I mentioned that I had Berkoff’s Systematic Theology, John asked if maybe he could borrow it some time. I thought to myself, “There is no way he is going to get that textbook - I’ll never see it again!” For our first 3 months of marriage we lived with John’s parents in Oshawa, Ontario before we went to Grand Rapids, Michigan, where John was to study at Calvin Seminary. During those 3 months, I decided to straighten out John’s bookcases. That meant I put the books all in neat rows according to height and size – I was tired of look at those messy shelves. John was not a happy camper when he came home and found out that his books were not in subject order. Oh well, live and learn, in those early marriage days. More and more books Throughout his ministry, the supply of books increased. John mostly bought books at garage sales, library sales, or people would kindly give him books from their collections – he would never say no to that. But then we would need more bookshelves and more space. In all our moves the books came with us. From Vernon, BC to Wellandport, ON they came by train in the deep of winter. None were lost. He took about 400 books with us to the Philippines – ones he needed for teaching at the seminary. It was a challenge to sort and choose. He took some Dutch books as well, only to find that the bok-bok worm liked the glue in his Dutch books (but they had no interest in his cheap paperbacks). In all our pastorates John has his study in the house, taking up a bedroom for his books. In Wellandport the church built a special addition on to the parsonage for his study. That was much needed – our family of six needed the room. And the quantity of books continued to grow. All sorts John was happiest when he had a book and pen in his hand to make his own personal notes and scribbles – he did not use a highlighter for his markings. And he was quite an eclectic reader, his reading ranging from The Communist Manifesto to Francis Schaeffer’s writings. One of his favorite books to read again and again was Augustine’s Confessions. Right up there among his favorites were C.S. Lewis, Chuck Colson, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, and A. Kuyper. There was no end of his favorite special writers. I could tell when John was tired – that’s when he would pull out a good Dutch novel. Though he was a serious reader, John enjoyed a good mystery, the likes of Agatha Christie or G.K. Chesterton. Tools in his toolbox John was often asked if he had read them all. Yes, he would say. Mind you, some of them were strictly reference material for his sermons or articles. Did he keep every book he got from day one when he started his ministry? Believe it or not, he gave away a good number to future seminarians and threw out others that were no longer relevant or falling apart. Did it make a dent on the shelf? Hardly. At one point I had to put my foot down and say I did not want bookshelves in our bedroom or kitchen. Looking after all these books was a challenge, especially when it came to dusting and straightening up the shelves. Books are real dust collectors so every year around Christmas or New Years I would take them down, shelf by shelf, and give them all a good dusting. I would find pieces of paper stuck in a book, along with clippings, articles, and any other kind of paper for his notes. Yes books were part and parcel of John’s ministry and our married life. Books were his tools, just like that of a carpenter or painter. They had to be accessible somewhere, even if that meant a pile on the floor by his chair and not in a box in the cupboard. Passing on the tools The time came in John’s last 2 months when he could not hold a pen or a book, let alone have the stamina to read. That was a blow to give up something he loved dearly all his life. One of my hardest times was to go into his study where I saw piles of books he had gathered for his articles, his pens his notes and the discarded scraps of paper in his wastebasket… all just where he left it to the point of no return. A year later I sorted out John’s Dutch books, computer filed each title and author, boxed 1,300 of them and took them to the Canadian Reformed Seminary in Hamilton. I did the same with his English books, computer filed each title, and author, boxed 3,600 books, and took them to Redeemer Christian College University in Ancaster, Ontario. A few books went to family and to several of John’s colleagues. That was John’s wish and prayer – that his books would be used for God’s glory and His Kingdom. So this is my journey with books – from a few boxes when we arrived in Vernon, BC in 1966 to our life in London, ON where I took out over 200 boxes of books. The journey has been long and good and I certainly have no regrets living surrounded by books! For 13 years Rev. Johan Tangelder (1936-2009) – John – wrote articles for Reformed Perspective. You can find many of those articles here, and many more on his website. This article first appeared in the July 2011 issue....

Assorted

Navigating failure

Fear of failure can paralyze you. There’s a lot to be said about how, in order to succeed, you need to be comfortable with failure – but that doesn’t erase the fact that failing feels painful and shameful. Who wants that? Better to avoid it. Suddenly success becomes less important than “not failing.” And the only sure way to avoid all the feelings that come with not being able to do something is to not try it at all. Not trying assures you of not failing. But in trying to avoid failure, you can hold yourself back from doing things in your path that God has given you to do. So what’s a good way to navigate failure? There are two different approaches I've taken at different times of my life to deal with this fear of failure. They both begin with a question. What would you do – or attempt – or explore... 1) …if you knew you couldn’t fail – that it was impossible? 2) … if you were free to fail?” 1. What if you could not fail? “What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?” I first came across this question in a book called Launching a Leadership Revolution, but asking this kind of question is a pretty common approach to working with a fear of failure. Why? Because this question can be clarifying: stop thinking about what’s holding you back and start thinking about what you’d really want to do if you could. Once you know what you really want, then you can think about how to navigate the obstacles that might come up. If you never stop to think about what you really desire to accomplish, you could spend your whole life doing things that feel safe just because they feel safe, and miss what you might be uniquely suited to do. But this question can also be disheartening, and it certainly was for me back when I first read it. Because the answer was – a lot more than what I was doing at that moment. I can’t count how many times the fear of terrible things happening to me stopped me, all because I couldn’t count on these terrible things not happening. And I’m not alone in dreaming of a world of failure-free achievement, judging by the number of self-help books that use this quote. It is true that many successful people plowed on despite failure and in the face of more failure, but I couldn’t shake the nagging awareness of people who did plow on after failing and just kept on failing. I know failure isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But it can feel terrible. And there’s no guarantee that “keep trying” will lead to success. So I found it difficult to ignore the thought of failure, as this quote seemed to advise me to do. Or even to accept failure as part of the process. The quote did, however, inspire me to dream about what I’d like to achieve with my life. It helps cut to the chase of what you really want to do, even if you feel at the moment that it’s unachievable. Which brings me to the second approach. 2. What if you were free to fail? “When you’ve been found, you’re free to fail.” – James K.A. Smith, On the Road with St. Augustine When you’re young, life is more about trying to make choices about what you want to do, and that must’ve drawn me to the first question years ago. Maybe I’m drawn to this second quote more now as I’m older and navigating the result of my own and other people’s failures. Here’s the full quote in context: “Resting in the love of God doesn’t squelch ambition; it fuels it with a different fire. I don’t have to strive to get God to love me; rather, because God loves me unconditionally, I’m free to take risks and launch out into the deep. I’m released to aspire to use my gifts in gratitude, caught up in God’s mission for the sake of the world. When you’ve been found, you’re free to fail.” Rest, rather than striving. Release rather than control. And the peace of God’s love, rather than approval conditional on success. Humans judge on achievements. We compare each other, and we compare ourselves to each other, and in the age of social media it doesn’t take long to see how much we lack in comparison to everyone else. But if life is about what we produce, what we show, and whether we’ve made good on the promise or potential we showed at one point, how can we ever find peace? Good questions both I still like both questions though. What would you do if you knew you could not fail is for young people deciding what to do with their lives. They’re making decisions about paths to take. They’re trying to diagnose their passions. What if you’re free to fail is for when you get a little older. It’s for those days when you’re dealing with the knowledge you have failed at various things. You DID fail. What does that mean? How do you handle it? Failure hits us because we take it as a reflection of who we are and what we’re worth. But we’re urged to start from a place of acceptance – God’s acceptance. Sometimes failure weighs on us because we know our sin is involved. Our feelings of guilt add to the pain of failure. But the beauty of this quote is that it prevents us from relying on “fixing” ourselves – God makes us acceptable. God loved us even when we were dead in our sins, and He promises us no sin can come between us if we turn to Him. God doesn’t ask us to overcome our failures before He loves us. He makes us new, and we can rely on that. So this is not only about the type of failure you can learn from. It’s not just the kind of “failing so you know what to do better next time.” Not the kind of failing that life coaches advise you is good for you (“fail fast and fail hard!”). No, this applies to the kind of failing that seems completely futile, that seems to have no meaning and no lesson to learn. The kind of failure that can crush you and make you too paralyzed to do anything more. You need the promise you’re accepted no matter what. What we really need Because here’s the thing about failure: you won’t avoid it. In a broken world, you will crash and burn at some point. But maybe we face failure for a reason – to be reminded that we cannot go through life on our own. Failure forces us to face the reality we’re dependent on God. He has to take us through the next steps. Both of the above approaches to failure are quotes from human authors. But the Bible reminds us that God promises to be there in all our shortcomings. In 2 Cor. 12:9 we read how God reminded Paul that, “My power is made perfect in weakness,” and in Phil 1:6 Paul reminds us that God “who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” What God started, He will finish, and we can rest in that assurance. In the end, none of us will be failures. What we really need is not to reach certain milestones, to earn anything, or to look successful in the eyes of the world, but rather to learn that utter dependence on God. If you can let go and let God work out His plan for the world, you can trust He will bring everything to good. You can trust He knows the way even when you don’t....

Culture Clashes

There is a Hell. Jesus says so.

Some theologians, included big names like Rob Bell and John Stott, don’t believe in hell, or at least that it is eternal. Instead Stott suggested that lost souls might be annihilated and seize to exist. However, as Thor Ramsey notes in his bookThe Most Encouraging Book on Hell Ever, this doctrine does serious damage to our understanding of God’s holiness and justice. And what then are we to make of what Jesus says in Matt. 26:24: “It would have been better for that man if he had not been born”? “Jesus is saying for Judas, non-existence – having never existed at all – would be better than something else….Jesus is clearly saying Judas is on his way to hell. But from the perspective of annihilationism the question becomes: Is non-existence better for someone than an eternity of non-existence? Huh? “If annihilationism is true, then what Jesus said here about Judas is pretty much nonsense….Jesus was basically just babbling. And He didn’t do that.” Hell does exist; Jesus says so. And the world needs to be told to turn from their sin and flee God’s coming wrath. This article was first published in October 2016....

News

Saturday Selections – Dec. 13, 2025

Chickens are cooler than you knew (6 min) We all know chickens have the astonishing ability to turn grain into a key ingredient for Egg McMuffins, but few know that chickens are also the animal equivalent of gimbal cameras – no matter how you move them, back and forth, round and round, up and down, their head remains fixed in one spot. It's crazy. It's also the fingerprints of the their great Designer... though this secular video doesn't go there. One note: the last 90 seconds of this is just a commercial for a 3D printer, so once that starts you can hit stop. Tim Challies' Top 10 books of 2025 Can Australia's ban on social media for kids be a bad thing? Australia is now banning kids under 16 from using social media. Hurrah, right? Well, as Rev. Witteveen outlines, there is a dark cloud to this silver lining – in keeping kids off, the government is implementing measures to further monitor everyone else. But they'll use is responsibly, right? Social media is a big problem, but protecting our kids was always a parental responsibility, and if we hand it off to the government, we might not like what else they do with the power we're handing over to them. Remember the Australian government's response to COVID? 7 lies about our love life The world has quite a pack of lies to sell. And God has something very different to say. Surgery denied. Death approved. A Saskatchewan woman, Jolene Van Alstine, who is suffering from a painful but treatable disease, has been approved for death-by-doctor (euphemistically called "MAiD"). As the linked article explains: "We have a growing list of citizens choosing death because medicine has become a lottery → a quadriplegic woman who applied for MAiD because she couldn’t secure basic home-care support veterans offered MAiD instead of trauma treatment homeless Canadians considering MAiD because they can’t survive winter "And now a woman denied a simple, lifesaving surgery." American conservative commentator Glenn Beck has come to the rescue though, offering to pay for Van Alstine to get treatment in the US. The author's article doesn't rule out MAiD altogether, but pitches it as a last ditch option. But in doing so, she too has lost the plot. If death is medicine at any time, then on what basis would it not be a valid offering all the time? Why refuse any good option? And why can't it be a cost-cutting measure even? If it is valid to kill some to ease suffering, why couldn't it be valid to kill more, so as to more quickly and more cheaply, ease more suffering? When murder is medicine the only fixed line has been crossed – we've long treated abortion as healthcare, and killing the born in the name of medicine is just the next step. Offering Alstine death as treatment is entirely in keeping with this worldview. But there is another understanding of life. Not as something we hold and can choose to dispose of as we will, but as something entrusted to us, to steward. Christians seem unwilling to raise God in the euthanasia battle, but if we leave God out of this conversation, what basis is there for human worth? The State gives you worth? Well, then the State can take away that valuation, as it has done for Van Alstine. We decide our own worth? Again, not so for Van Alstine. Outside forces, the province's neglect, have her devaluing a life she might otherwise treasure. Euthanasia's lie of autonomy – you will choose when you die – is here exposed. We need to highlight her plight to showcase the antithesis between murders being medicine and all murders being always wrong because we are made in the very image of God. All God's people must proclaim God's sovereignty over life, for His glory and because only His Truth can answer these lies. One more reason we're Protestants Jeff Durbin highlights another area where the Roman Catholic Church is running right up against God. ...

Assorted

Taming busyness: practical tips

“If I’m caught up on my laundry, does that mean I’m not doing enough for the church?” “Am I allowed to fit in time for exercise, or only if...

Science - General

Topsy-turvy world of bats

People have a love/hate relationship with bats. While these animals are interesting and exciting to some, the more common response is very negative, t...

Politics

Canada’s law was based on God’s Word

Blackstone, Britain, the Bible and the legal heritage of the English-speaking countries ***** Canada’s law was largely based on God’s law. Th...

News

Saturday Selections – Dec. 6, 2025

Rosaria raps? Here's the wild, wacky, and wonderful side of AI – Reformed rap battles that never were, but brought to you anyway with this newest t...

Adult non-fiction, Book Reviews

How an Economy Grows and Why It Crashes

by Peter Schiff and Andrew Schiff 2014 / 304 pages Economics affects everyone but few people care to learn much about it. All the numbers and graphs make it seem complex and quite boring. Of course some subjects are so important that even if they were boring we’d just have to soldier on and learn them anyway. And you could certainly make that case for economics – every citizen has to get a handle on the basics of economics so we can properly evaluate government policies and get a handle on where the economy may be heading. However, Peter Schiff and Andrew Schiff have done us a service by making it possible to learn economics without being bored to sleep. Peter Schiff is an investment manager who was also an economic adviser to Congressman Ron Paul's 2008 presidential campaign. Andrew, Peter’s brother, is the communications director for Peter’s investment firm. In 2014 they released a Collector's Edition of their book How an Economy Grows and Why It Crashes that is part fiction, part comic book, and educationally entertaining throughout. . A fish story Their book is written in the form of a story, with some cartoon illustrations thrown in, which makes this a lot easier to digest and follow than, say, a university economics textbook. The story begins as follows: Three men, Able, Baker, and Charlie, live on an island and survive by catching fish with their bare hands. They just barely subsist from day to day, catching only enough for their next meal. Then Able gets the idea of making a simple net to catch fish, but to make it, he has to invest a day’s worth of time. Instead of going fishing, he spends the day crafting the net. This investment is not only costly – he has to go a day without food – it is also risky: he doesn’t know if his net will work. But Able is an entrepreneur, so he takes the risk, and makes the investment. And work it does. The net enables him to dramatically increase the amount of fish he catches, and therefore improves his lifestyle. The net is “capital” he created that increased his productivity. He subsequently catches more fish than he can consume, and this situation initiates improvements on the island. The lesson, as the Schiffs write, is that “spare production is the lifeblood of a healthy economy.” Because he has surplus fish, Able lends them to Baker and Charlie. Those two fellows can then take time off from catching fish with their hands to make nets for themselves. That is, they too create capital to improve production. With the extra fish they can now catch, they pay Able back with interest, and all three of the men are better off than before. Even though they had to pay interest, Baker and Charlie increased their own standard of living. Able’s motivation in loaning the fish was to earn a profit. But the loan he provided benefited the other two men as well as himself. As the Schiffs explain, The pursuit of profit drives innovation, business formation, and economic growth. It’s the force that raises everyone’s living standard. A big profit just means that a business is good at satisfying customers. Those who earn it should be celebrated not vilified. Increasing productivity The story continues from this point with the three men able to spend less time fishing, and more time developing other tools and implements (capital) for improving their lives. For example, they make more nets to build larger fish-catching devices. The new capital they create increases productivity even further. The Schiffs strongly emphasize the importance of increasing productivity as the key to a successful economy. It benefits everyone. Besides using their story to show how, they also add a real-life example: the industrial revolution of the nineteenth century. They write that the …vastly increased productivity of the industrial revolution made it possible for working-class people to afford all kinds of goods, like upholstered furniture, tailored clothing, plumbing, and wheeled transportation, that were previously available only to the rich. Eventually Able, Baker and Charlie begin trading with people on other islands. Immigrants come to their island, a government is formed, and the economy becomes more complex. Their island society becomes known as Usonia. It’s an easy story to follow with lessons on basic economics interwoven with the story’s events. Paper currency Fish function in this story not only as food but also as currency. Everyone eats fish and they are easy to exchange for other items. Once a government is created for Usonia, it issues paper currency backed by fish. Each “Fish Reserve Note” could be redeemed for actual fish at a central bank. Using paper money was much easier than carrying actual fish, so it became the common currency. Over time, though, the government produces larger and larger amounts of paper currency without maintaining enough fish to redeem the notes. Eventually the government declares that the Fish Reserve Notes could not be redeemed for actual fish after all. The value of the currency then becomes based on the citizens’ confidence in the government. This is much like the situation with money in the world today. The currencies of modern nations are no longer based on particular sources of value (like gold) but on confidence in the nations’ governments. The Canadian and US dollars were at one time backed by gold (that is, a dollar represented a specific amount of gold), but that is no longer the case. Now they are just paper. The Schiffs point out that this kind of paper money is commonly called “fiat” money. The word “fiat” comes from Latin and literally means “let it be done.” The word applies because paper money does not have any intrinsic worth, but rather derives its value from government decree. Right now the worldwide economy based on fiat money seems to be working. But the Schiffs do not think it will last. They do not consider fiat money to be real money because it has no inherent value, the way gold and other precious metals do. In their view, we are in a “through the looking glass” world where, for the past 40 years, no country issues real money. This is the biggest monetary experiment ever conducted. No one knows how or when it will end. But rest assured, it will. Government debt The government of Usonia, like actual governments today, increases spending beyond its means and finances its operations through increased taxes, borrowing money, and also printing more paper money. These activities are harmful to the economy in the long run. The Schiffs state that Taxes and borrowing merely divert private-sector spending or investment to government. Printed money has the same effect. Newly created money spent into circulation by the government depresses the purchasing power of money held by the public. In the United States, President Barack Obama has pursued a policy of high government expenditures financed by borrowing and printing money. The US government debt is so large, in fact, that the Schiffs do not believe it can ever be paid. They paint a rather unnerving picture: Ultimately the U.S. government will have only two options: default (tell our creditors that we can’t pay, and negotiate a settlement) or inflate (print money to pay off maturing debt). Either option will lead to painful consequences. They believe that the value of the US dollar will drop steeply because so much is currently being printed. However, its status as the official “reserve currency” of the world keeps its value artificially propped up. Being the international reserve currency means that the dollar is accepted as the exchange currency for any international transaction. This means that everyone, not just the United States and its trading partners, needs dollars to conduct trade. So even if no one actually buys things that are made in this country, dollars are always in demand. No other country has this monetary good fortune. In their view, if the US dollar was to lose reserve status, its value would drop severely, wiping out much of the wealth Americans currently possess. Its present value only remains high because of its wide acceptance around the world. Conclusion Economics may not be inherently exciting to many people but it affects everyone. The basics are understandable if they are presented properly, and the Schiff brothers do a great job in their book. They provide a simple basis for understanding the kinds of measures that help an economy grow as well as those that stifle growth. Some policies (such as printing more money) provide a temporary illusion of prosperity followed by a financial downturn. Politicians campaigning for re-election love policies that provide an illusion of prosperity. They often make decisions that will benefit themselves in the short run but actually harm the economy in the long run. The Schiffs emphasize work, saving, thrift, and innovation as keys to economic success. To a large degree the virtues that lead to prosperity are also Biblical virtues. Therefore, even though the book is not specifically Christian, it reflects much that is compatible with Biblical Christianity. This was originally published in the May 2015 issue under the title “Economics for Everyone.”...

Pro-life - Abortion

You can save pre-born lives this summer

Yesterday I stood on a sidewalk holding a sign. It read, Pregnant? Need Help? I watched as the crowds hurried by and saw, on our other signs, what abortion does to a pre-born child. I asked a young woman what she thought of abortion. Without slowing her pace, she said “I just had one last week.” Every day, three hundred pre-born children are killed in Canada. A staggering number which, we too easily forget, isn’t just a number. That number represents children – children who were killed. Yesterday, I met the mom of one of those little boys or girls. I almost cried as I watched her walk away. I have cried since. I cried for the mother who lost her greatest gift and for the child who was mourned only by a stranger. Today As I think about this child, I see lack. The lack of advocates – we need more people standing up on behalf of these little ones. The lack of time – we’ll never get last week back; we don’t get another chance to save that precious child. The lack of education – Did she know there were resources available and people willing to help? Did she recognize what the abortionist was going to do? Did she know what “her choice” cost? It’s not that we did nothing. We were on the street last week and the week before. We’ve been out week after week, month after month. Yet somehow, the something we did was not enough. We missed this mother. With approximately 300 pre-born children killed every day, we are living in the midst of one of, if not the, single greatest human rights violations in human history, with the victims entirely reliant on people like us to advocate on their behalf. With no legal restrictions in Canada protecting pre-born children, their lives may be extinguished through all 9 months of pregnancy, with little or no explanation required. We must engage every Canadian on the issue of abortion. Every pro-lifer must recognize their responsibility to help. Every pre- and post-abortive woman and man must understand the value of their sons and daughters. Every pre-born child must be safe in their mother’s womb. The hard truth is, it’s too late to prevent that mother from choosing abortion; too late to save her little boy or girl. But it’s not too late to mourn for them. It’s not too late to share the truth. It’s not too late to protect others like them. This is the least we should do. Tomorrow Another little girl will be killed. She’ll be all alone with no one to advocate for her, no one to protect her. Another little boy will be killed. No one will mourn. No one will cry. No one will bury his little body. Unless we act. We cannot change yesterday but we could change tomorrow. Intern Catharine Jordan talking truth about the unborn in Halifax harbor. Join us The Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform (CCBR) is a national, educational pro-life organization committed to ending the killing of pre-born children by proactively engaging Canadians with the visual reality of what abortion does to pre-born children, together with compassionate and compelling conversation skills to change minds, save lives, and transform our culture. We are excited to partner with churches, pro-life groups, and individuals to equip pro- lifers with the conversational tools and experience they need to have productive conversations with their friends, family, and members of their community. You can learn more about how to bring members of the CCBR team to your community by contacting us at [email protected]. Additionally, CCBR will be hosting our world-renowned paid internships where pro-lifers can join for either four months (May-August) or two months (July-August) this upcoming summer to receive expert training from global pro-life leaders, before joining CCBR’s team of experienced activists for daily outreach, changing hearts and minds of men and women throughout the Greater Toronto area. This incredible program will provide you with the confidence you need to engage in your own compassionate and compelling conversations about abortion with all those in your sphere of influence, all while making some of the best friends you will ever have as you serve shoulder-to-shoulder with like-minded men and women committed to ending the killing of pre-born children in our country. For more information and to apply, go to endthekilling.ca/internships. Quiana Casamayor is a CCBR staff member. Pictures graciously supplied by CCBR....

Dying Well

Moth and rust resolutions

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. (Matt. 6:19-21) I'll wait to have a child, she said, Until this year, next year, Is past. The winters whiled away. But when she craved a son, The day was gone. The day was done. And when the evening stole Across the sky. She heard God say, I need your soul. Your time's passed by. You cannot stay. I'll marry me a farm, he said, And insulate it well With rustic country charm, he said. But when he'd drawn his plans, Borrowed the money, read the banns, The evening sunset stole Across the sky. He heard God say, I need your soul. Your time's passed by. You cannot stay. I'll juggle with my tax, he said, No need to call it cheat, For everyone is lax, he said. He filed his neat return, But did not get it back. The burn Of sunset evening stole Across the sky. He heard God say, I need your soul. Your time's passed by. You cannot stay. Tomorrow I will play, he said, But father's busy now, I have no time today, he said. His child walked out the door. A glance, a twinge of guilt, no more, And soon the darkness stole Across the sky. He heard God say, I need your soul. Your time's passed by. You cannot stay. Please hold your twilight, Lord, for I Am not quite ready yet to *** The Bible tells us in Deuteronomy 23:21-23 that we should be careful to do what we say and do what we believe. We demonstrate our reverence, respect, and love for God by a daily walking in His path. However, the sad truth is that promises are often broken, not just by our neighbors who might not attend church, but also by Christians who have made a public profession of faith. Our lifespan is short and we do not know how many days are left in which we may serve God; we do not know how many days will be given to us to acknowledge openly the love we say we have. Lincoln’s mom There is an anecdote about Abraham Lincoln and a vow. Lincoln, who was the 16th president of the U.S. (1861-1865), once drove a lengthy distance in a carriage with one of his colonels. During the drive, this colonel took a bottle out of his pocket and offered the president a drink of whiskey. Lincoln politely refused. Reaching into his shirt pocket, the officer then offered Lincoln a whopping, beautiful cigar. Smiling, Lincoln responded by telling a story. “When I was nine years old,” he began, “my mother was extremely ill. She was on her deathbed and called me to her side. Some of her last words asked me to promise that I would never drink or smoke. I said that I would not and I have kept that promise. Would you advise me to break it at this time in my life?” Abraham Lincoln’s response was a godly one. At that time, he had no idea that he would be assassinated soon and that his soul would be required of him by his heavenly Father. Had he broken his word to his earthly mother, it would also have been a broken word to his heavenly Father. To turn to our patient God, and to do His will, is a requirement for all those endowed with the breath of life. It should be a daily prerogative. God gives to everyone on earth many chances to turn from earthly ways to heavenly ones. Sinatra’s way Frank Sinatra (1915-1998) was a popular American singer and actor. Humanly speaking, he was quite famous. Many people hummed along to his signature song, a song by which he was known and a song which claimed that he was in charge of his own life, his own decisions. Entitled “My Way,” the song appealed to the self-assertive. Some of its words were: Regrets, I’ve had a few, But then again, too few to mention. I did what I had to do and saw it through without exemption. I planned each charted course, each careful step along the byway, And more, much more than this, I did it my way. Frank Sinatra’s life, his moth-and-rust way, by the grace of God, lasted a little longer than eight decades. He’d been married four times, had three children, and had an adoring public before God spoke and said, “This is now the end of your way, Frank. I need your soul.” Frank died of complications associated with dementia, heart and kidney disease and bladder cancer. Before he died, he summed up his way, his personal faith, in these words: “First: I believe in you and me … I believe in nature, in the birds, the sea, the sky, in everything I can see or that there is real evidence for. If these things are what you mean by God, then I believe in God. But I don’t believe in a personal God to whom I look for comfort or for a natural on the next roll of the dice. I’m not unmindful of man’s seeming need for faith; I’m for anything that gets you through the night, be it prayer, tranquilizers or a bottle of Jack Daniel’s … Well, I believe that God knows what each of us wants and needs. It’s not necessary for us to make it to church on Sunday to reach Him. You can find Him anyplace. And if that sounds heretical, my source is pretty good: Matthew, Five to Seven, The Sermon on the Mount.” Frank Sinatra’s last words, spoken to his wife, were: “I’m losing.” God, in His love, gave Frank Sinatra plenty of opportunities to turn to Him for salvation during his long, four-score plus, earthly travel. Not being God, we cannot judge the final moments of the singer’s life. But this truth is sure, once he died, blue-eyed Frank, ready or not, faced God in final judgment and God rendered a verdict on him, as He will render it to each human being. He will render each judgment with holiness and justice. But there are no second chances and there are no other ways than God’s way. Jesus in 2026 Although it is appointed for man to die once, and after that face judgment, as it says in Hebrews 9:27, it is also good to remember the comfort of John 5:24. “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.” Perhaps this coming year of 2026 will be the year in which we will hear God say to some of us, “I need your soul. Your time’s passed by. You cannot stay.” It is good to reflect on this and to contemplate seriously whether or not our daily resolutions will pass muster; whether or not they are infused with love for and faith in Jesus....

Interview with an artist

Created to create: a practical person’s thoughts on creativity

I can vividly recall one spring afternoon many years ago when I came across an unexpected sight in the woods near my childhood home: an apple tree in full bloom, its delicate pink-tinged petals drifting down like snow. It was a moment of wonder, not only at the magical scene I had unexpectedly entered, but because I was the only one there to see it. All this beauty seemed wasted in its hiddenness. Why would God lavish such loveliness on a place where no one would notice? What does undiscovered beauty say about God? Many similar moments since then have made me ponder what this reveals about God: a Creator who cares about beauty for its own sake. He fashioned a world that is not only functional but beautiful. When one reads the detailed specifications for the temple and its articles, it’s clear that God values craftsmanship and artistry. Further reading reveals how He cares about skilled musicians and beautiful lyrics, good storytelling, and lyrical poetry (How differently we’d feel about the Psalms if they were written in prose!). All throughout creation, we see beauty for the sake of beauty, often with no apparent practical function. We marvel at this truth on clear nights when we look at the stars. “And He made the stars also,” the creation account tells us (Gen. 1:16), nearly in afterthought, as though the spontaneous flinging of innumerable flaming orbs throughout the universe by just a word requires no further elaboration. We wonder at the purpose of this vast universe, much of it unseen and unknowable. The Psalmist hints at a reason: “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place…what are human beings that you care for them?” This Creator, Artist, Designer – the one who brings all this wondrous, breathtaking beauty into being so effortlessly – cares about insignificant you and me. Clearly, all this impractical, creative beauty reveals something about God’s character that we are meant to discover in the midst of our practical, everyday lives. Made in the Image of my Creator I am, by nature, a practical person. My background is in nursing, not art. I only recently took up painting as a hobby during Covid lockdowns when my usual routines slowed. But practically speaking, I struggled to find purpose for creativity. The impetus behind creating sometimes feels uncomfortably more like drive than pleasure. But even without outside motivation or practical reasons, I’m not alone in simply pursuing creativity for its own sake. Though this drive may reveal itself in a variety of ways, it all points to being created in the image of a Creator who loves to create. After the Storm: A storm rolling through Destin, Florida, left behind waves that were perfect for one of our family's favourite beach activities, boogie boarding. There are other reasons to lean into this drive to create. Andy Crouch in Culture Making reminds us that it is easy to slip into the role of consumer (and critic) of culture, rather than putting effort into a counter-cultural offering of our own. Christians are called not only to reject what is false, but also to offer something better. When we write a song, paint a picture, cook a delicious meal, cultivate a garden, craft a story, or build something skillfully, we have the opportunity to reflect goodness, truth, and beauty. Practicality: a good tool but a lousy master Practicality, for all its advantages, has its faults. At times, it can blind us to things important and valuable. Jesus’ followers and disciples were (relatably) concerned about practical things: feeding hungry crowds, keeping pesky children out of Jesus's way, staying afloat on stormy seas, managing the household and hostess duties. Jesus gently rebukes this way of thinking; not encouraging neglect of the practical necessities, of course, but reminding them and us that there were important things to see and learn in those moments that could be missed if focus was only on what was practical. When a woman poured out expensive oil on Jesus, the disciples were aghast. It seemed a waste; surely there were more pragmatic uses for the money spent on this costly, fragrant oil. But Jesus does not rebuke the woman for this extravagance; rather, He rebukes the disciples, saying, “She has done a beautiful thing to me.” This beautiful act continues to be told “as a memorial to her” ever since, just as Jesus said it would. Beauty has that ability to linger on in hearts and minds, inspiring others for generations to come. It’s easy, like the disciples, to get caught up in all our cares and concerns, the toiling and spinning of everyday. What will we eat, wear, and how will we get everything done? Jesus points out, “Life is more than food, the body more than clothes.” Flower Girl: Her flower girl duties over, my young daughter explores the wedding venue, an old barn. Beauty pushes back the dark For those of us whose tendency is to focus solely on these practical things, He encourages us to consider the lilies of the field, “they neither toil nor spin, yet not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.” All this created beauty not only points to a creative God who loves beauty, but has the further purpose of reminding us of His great care and love for us. He adorns even the grass of the field with such beauty, which is "here today and gone tomorrow." He creates beauty that is fleeting, unnoticed, even unseen, like trees in full blossom in a forest or galaxies far away. How much more will He not care for us? Truly, the business of life can steal from our sight the beauty of these truths if we don’t take time to seek them out. Creativity encourages us to open our eyes to new perspectives, drawing us into new moments of awe and wonder. We find ourselves not only seeking beauty in a new way, but also finding it in unlikely places. Jesus made the startling announcement that “The kingdom of God is at hand,” then spent His ministry years fixing the broken, teaching the ignorant, reversing the curse, lighting the darkness. In the “already, but not yet,” we too can offer glimpses of this Kingdom. Andrew Peterson calls it "adorning the dark." I love the picture portrayed by this phrase: giving words to how we push back darkness through our creative endeavors; motivation to spur us on when inspiration fades. We offer our gifts of creativity and beauty to the Creator Who doesn’t see it as wasted effort. We dive into this opportunity to reflect the creativity of God, Whose image we bear. We accept His gracious invitation to create, knowing that though it may not always be practical, it is not without purpose. Artwork provided by the author. Find more of Holly’s art, and details about her new novel for young teens, on Instagram and on her website....

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Created to create: a practical person’s thoughts on creativity