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Forward Motion, or the Snail in the Well
There is an old riddle about a snail crawling up the side of a well. It starts 20 feet down and crawls 5 feet up by day but slides back down 4 feet by night. How long does it take the snail to climb out of the well? The riddle reveals the danger of abstract…
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Little Faith
We were all tired. He told us to cross the lake. He would catch up with us later. The wind was against us, so we took it in turns rowing. It was getting on toward dawn when one of the guys saw what looked like a man crossing the lake—without a boat. We were all…
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Pegged
I think every human being experiences some tension between wanting to belong and wanting to be seen as a unique individual. In recent years that tension has become increasingly politicized. I grew up in a family devoted to Christ. Some of my earliest memories are of church, and they were overwhelmingly positive. I enjoyed the…
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Mary’s Choice
Jesus was an itinerant teacher with disciples—what we might today call student interns—who traveled with him to hear what he taught. He and his followers subsisted on donations. There were twelve disciples, all men, but also a number of women who traveled with him and helped support them from their own means. When Jesus entered…