As a veteran economics teacher, my first days with a new class always felt awkward—students were cautious, not quite sure what to expect. To break the ice, I’d ask them to sum up economics in a single word. Almost everyone wrote: “money.” Then I’d reveal a hidden message I’d prepared behind the screen: “It’s not…
It’s not widely known, but I love audiobooks—a habit that’s shaped the rhythms of my life and, more often than I realize, the quiet spaces of my soul. In my 30s, I found myself balancing family, college classes, and hours on the road as a driver for a car service. Those long, empty drives between…
There’s an old saying among teachers: “There’s no tired like first day tired.” After summer break, the start of a new year brings a mountain of prep, endless meetings, and barely any time for what matters most—getting ready for our students. By the first official day, most teachers are already running on empty. On the…
Abraham Lincoln’s beloved son Willie died at age eleven in the White House. Lincoln’s anguish is well known to historians. He would visit the crypt where Willie lay, sometimes lingering for hours, even asking the caretakers to open the coffin so he could sit with his lost boy. In those hushed, sorrowful moments, the president…
Yesterday, discouragement seemed to stalk me around every corner—I couldn’t shake it. I’ve learned that discouragement can come from anywhere, whether it’s physical exhaustion, a string of minor annoyances, or one of life’s bigger heartbreaks. Sometimes, it takes just a small thing to throw our whole perspective off balance. As Mr. Scrooge told the ghost…
About ten years ago, my wife and I took our first cruise vacation. Within a couple of hours aboard the Norwegian Jewel out of Galveston, I thought, “Now this is how to travel.” Cruises offer something different: instead of tackling airports and TSA lines, you just drive, board, and ease into vacation mode, plates in…
Spring break in Manchester, New Hampshire wasn’t part of our plan—but sometimes the best journeys aren’t. My wife and I used frequent flyer miles for a trip as far as New England. Hotels and rental cars were surprisingly cheap, and though it was winter for locals, for us from the Texas coast, it was an…
For me, watching “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” is as much a rite of fall as carving a pumpkin or feeling that first snap of cool autumn air. There’s just something about these little traditions—they have a way of rooting themselves in your memory. As a kid, Halloween meant dressing up in the absolute…
For several years in my forties, I started my days before sunrise—out the door by 5 a.m., paper coffee cup in hand, before breakfast and ahead of the school-day rush. I’d walk a few blocks down cracked, uneven sidewalks to a small park by a wide concrete drainage culvert. On either side, a narrow, grassy…
Several years into my teaching career, I found that a personal connection could transform even the most indifferent students—especially when teaching about the Great Depression. For my parents, especially my much older father, those years were vivid realities that shaped our family and, eventually, me. History in textbooks, I realized, was mostly words and statistics—dry…
A Christian writer named A.W. Tozer wrote, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” Earlier in my walk with God, I wouldn’t have given that much weight. God is God; he doesn’t change. So he is who he is. That much is true—but Tozer was…
When I was in my twenties, I worked at a metal supply company. The people I worked with were friendly, but like most folks, they lived according to what was right in their own eyes. I tried not to be “holier than thou”—just wanted to walk with God without making a show of it. One…