When William was two months old, I took him to the pediatrician for a checkup. “He’s really tight,” our doctor said. “Yep,” I nodded. “It’s hard for me to get him dressed. His arms are so strong I can hardly pull them away from his body.” He frowned. “He has extremely high muscle tone.” I’ve watched enough doctors express concern that I knew to ask, “Are you thinking this could be a problem?” “Well…” He looked at me. “Well, it... Read more

I graduated from Seminary on Saturday. It was seven years in the making, to finish the three year degree (at least seven is a Biblical number). I now have what is called a “Masters of Divinity,” a rather unfortunate title. By my reckoning, one of the goals of a Seminary education is to teach us that we can never “master” the subject of “divinity,” that God, who is infinite, eternal, and inscrutable, cannot be pinned down or summed up in... Read more

Please forgive the formatting of this post–blogger is sometimes out of control, or at least out of my technical capabilities! Still some articles worth reading: “Red Family, Blue Family,” New York Times, May 9, 2010. This is a great op-ed exploring abortion, teen pregnancy, family values, and the sexual revolution. A quote: “Liberals sometimes argue that their preferred approach to family life reduces the need for abortion. In reality, it may depend on abortion to succeed. The teen pregnancy rate... Read more

We don’t get out much, so perhaps it’s no surprise that neither Peter nor I had heard of The Painted Veil. We rented it based upon the trailer, and we weren’t disappointed. It’s a beautiful film. It’s a pretty simple story: husband, who is also a doctor (played by Ed Norton) and wife, who is eager to get away from her mother (played by Naomi Watts) move to China. Wife has an affair. Husband gets mad and moves with wife... Read more

I have a new post at her.menuetics. It begins: In her new and buzzworthy book, For Better: The Science of a Good Marriage, The New York Times‘s Tara Parker-Pope examines what brain chemistry and genes have to do with happy marriages. She begins a recent Well column with a question: “Why do some men and women cheat on their partners while others resist the temptation?” While she doesn’t come right out with an answer, she implies that the inclination toward... Read more

A few months into our life with a child with Down syndrome, I realized that we live in exactly the right place at exactly the right time with exactly the right resources. We are within an hour of the best children’s hospital in the nation, a hospital that has a satellite office 15 minutes away. People move to our state because of the quality of services and education for kids with special needs. We live, literally, one mile from the... Read more

I was recently asked to write, in 100 words or less, an answer to the question: “How is the Holy Spirit at work in the world today?” Tough assignment, but here’s what I came up with: In nudges and whispers. Like a seed growing, imperceptible at first. Like wind, invisible, refreshing, transformative. Like water, cleansing, renewing, powerful. Unpredictably. Uncontrollably. Praying: for us, with us, in us, through us. Convicting, like a judge in a courtroom. Comforting, like a mother with... Read more

“We live in a culture that has replaced soul with self. This reduction turns people into either problems or consumers. Insofar as we acquiesce in that replacement, we gradually but surely regress in our identity, for we end up thinking of ourselves and dealing with others in marketplace terms: everyone we meet is either a potential recruit to join our enterprise or a potential consumer for what we are selling; or we ourselves are the potential recruits and consumers. Neither... Read more

Peter and I have been worried lately because Penny seems to care too much about how her actions impact our feelings. For instance, she had an accident while sitting on Peter’s shoulders. So the collar of his shirt got wet. I took her home to change. She wouldn’t look me in the eye. I finally said, “How are you feeling, Pen?” “Sad.” “Why?” “I had an accident on Dad.” It wasn’t the accident that bothered her. It was the idea... Read more

I’ve decided to start another weekly Friday feature, which will simply be a list of articles I’ve read in the past week that seem relevant and interesting to the topics I otherwise discuss on this blog. I won’t comment at length here, but I will provide a sentence or two so you can know if you’d like to read further: “The Big Spill” from TIME, May 17. A helpful look at the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico... Read more