“I’ve been looking for him all my life.” With tears in his eyes, Bill Cordes spoke those words after being reunited with his younger brother, Robert. The men ha...

As a player for the San Francisco Giants baseball team, Drew Robinson knew mental highs and lows. Whenever injuries demoted him to the Giants’ minor league...

A saguaro cactus is never in a hurry to grow. Flourishing amid some of the most barren desert climates in the world, the plant slowly takes root over a lifetime...

When I was young, I loved going to Chick-fil-A, a US-based fast-food restaurant, for waffle fries and sweet tea. When, as an adult, I moved to another state, I ...

In the semifinals of his high school wrestling tournament, Dave cracked a rib on his right side. He won the match but wondered how he’d survive the championship...

James threw a long rope with a powerful magnet tied to it into the waters of a New York lake. The “magnet fisher” was stunned when he pulled out a grimy safe fi...

When I was a kid and got up in the middle of the night, I often found Mom sitting in her chair in the living room. The glow of the table lamp revealed a book on...

My father-in-law was a gunner in a bomber over Europe during World War II. His plane was shot down and he was captured, spending several months as a prisoner of...

After getting fired from his job without prior notice, Wil became so depressed that he admitted himself into an inpatient mental health facility. Then one ...

“Close it up. I’ve seen enough.” Those were the words of an older, experienced beekeeper to me one afternoon when I was learning how to tend a hive. My movement...

In Santa Fe, New Mexico, thousands gather each year to burn Zozobra—a fifty-foot towering effigy stuffed with their worries, bills, and regrets. They shout, “Bu...

In a TED Talk, Celeste Headlee outlines “10 Ways to Have a Better Conversation.” One of those might appear to be counterintuitive: In order to have good convers...

He was the doctor who never turned away a patient—even if some couldn’t pay him and even though he himself had experienced rejection from society. In spite of H...

Captain Tim Mullane diligently worked at sinking the SS United States—a massive ocean liner. In fact, he was paid to send it down to the depths. Mullane repurpo...

Like all early departures from this life, Joe’s death shocked those who knew him. Just before he died, he’d begun making poor decisions. Now this husband, fathe...

As I sat in a Bible class at the age of twenty-six, I was baffled. 
 Some of my classmates’ comments were discouraging. They 
 seemed to have so many problems....

The call from my mother came around 9 p.m. “It’s about your dad,” she said. “He’s gone.” While I’d been expecting this call for days and was relieved my father ...

When I was a child, I gladly accompanied my family to church every Sunday morning and evening. Our pastor exuded joy and always included the children in the ser...

On a teaching trip to Moscow, I decided to take the subway to get lunch. Standing in the subway car, I started whistling simply because I felt good after an enj...

One of my favorite books of optical illusions always astounds me as the pictures deceive my eyes—like one with two lines of the same length appearing to be diff...

When a father learned his five-year-old daughter had fallen overboard from the fourth deck of the cruise ship they were on, he plunged into the ocean forty feet...

My young grandson was spending the night in our new home, in a bed unfamiliar to him. He giggled with excitement as we read books under the dinosaur tent I’d pi...

Elise felt the panic rising. The book layout was due the next day, but the printer had rejected the photos. It could take days to sort it out. “Don’t worry,” sa...