Strong prayers to the hidden God
No one has ever seen God, but the One who knew Him before He was born on this earth taught us all to address Him in prayer.
When a Christian wonders if it makes sense to pray, the first and most eloquent answer comes naturally: Jesus Christ exhorted us to pray. No one would suspect that Christ was telling people to waste their time....
The darker side of our world
The world of the homeless is the darker side of our world. It is inhabited by vagrants, drug addicts, and the powerless. This world has its own rules, customs, pleasures, and pains, but lacks meaning and peace. And those who enter this world struggle to leave it.
When faith falters, and couples drift apart
Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer. – Rainer Maria Rilke
Antibiotics: Blind optimism is dangerous
The increased frequency with which doctors are encountering antibiotic-resistant bacteria is worrying. And it could affect an already precarious medical field—cancer treatment.
When parents die
I never cease to marvel at those who help, in an organized manner, troubled children, abandoned elderly or victims of violence. However, the general need for such heroic saviours reveals the failure of the social group that is apt to address these situations: the family.
The angry Christian. How can we free ourselves from destructive anger
A man is about as big as the things that make him angry. – Winston Churchill
Faith that survives unanswered prayers
The greatest tragedy of life is not unanswered prayer, but unoffered prayer. – F. B. Meyer
What about the failures that haunt us?
A smooth sea never gave a skilled sailor, said Franklin D. Roosevelt, suggesting that without hardship, challenges and even failures, we cannot become our best selves.
Prayer and the presence behind the silence
The words God is not listening! He is not answering! are the essence of one of our most troubling complaints: Is there an answer to it powerful enough to pull us from doubt’s darkness?
One habit healthier. What we need to know about change
Let him that would move the world first move himself. – Socrates
Never enough likes
The American Economic Review recently published the results of the largest randomized study ever conducted to measure the impact on the quality of life that deactivation ones Facebook account might have.
What do we do with the lingering sense of guilt?
I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. – Matthew 3:11
The risks of overrelying on genetic testing
Genetic testing is a new frontier in preventive medicine. But beyond this border, there lies a minefield of trial and error.
How to encourage others
What if we weren't allowed to use more than 140 words a day? If we entered this game, among the useless words we would give up there would probably be words that convey encouragement too. The sad irony is that we use too few words of encouragement anyway, although the emotional and relational benefits are too important to neglect.
A single stomach—and plenty of reasons not to stuff it
What would it be like to eat 8,6 kilograms of food in a single meal? Although it seems absurd to try and fit so much food into one’s stomach, a 23-year old model from London conducted just such an experiment in 1981.